What are reskilling and upskilling?

How the two terms differ

Cedefop, a European Union agency for vocational education and training, keeps a glossary of training policy terms. Its entry for upskilling describes short, targeted training, usually after initial education, that adds to, improves or updates a person's knowledge and skills. Its entry for reskilling, listed with retraining, describes training in new skills that opens the way to a different occupation or to new professional activities. Each entry notes that the two terms are close but not synonymous.

What employers and the IMF expect

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 was published in January 2025. Its survey covered more than 1,000 employers representing over 14 million workers. Those employers expected 39% of workers' existing skills to be transformed or outdated between 2025 and 2030. Out of every 100 workers, the report said, 59 would need training by 2030. Employers expected that 29 could be upskilled in their current roles and 19 upskilled and redeployed, while 11 were unlikely to get the training they needed.

Kristalina Georgieva, the International Monetary Fund's managing director, wrote in January 2026 that one in 10 job postings in advanced economies requires at least one new skill. Her recommendations included retraining access for workers at risk of displacement.

What the evidence shows

A December 2020 working paper by Lawrence Katz and three co-authors examined randomized evaluations of sector-focused programs. These programs screen applicants and train low-wage workers for particular industries. The paper reported earnings gains of 11 to 40 percent after training.

A broader review published by Anthropic in August 2026 is by independent researcher David Roodman and Anthropic's Maxim Massenkoff. It drew on 56 randomized US studies and on experiments in Europe. It reported positive but modest average effects: offering someone a training place raised employment by two to three percentage points and earnings by roughly $1,000 a year. It put the cost at about $13,000. The authors said attempts to replicate the stronger sector programs have often failed. They concluded that existing programs would likely fall short if AI displaced workers at scale.

Where things stand in 2026

The European Commission proposed its Union of Skills strategy in March 2025. As of October 2026, the Commission's page on the strategy lists a pilot skills guarantee for workers at risk of unemployment. It says a first call for proposals was published in November 2025.