Texas Border Business
By Jake Canull, the Regional Director of Top Employers Institute
Labor force growth, demographics, AI and work-life balance are rapidly reshaping American workplaces. In the face of seismic change, employers who build sustainable workplaces can prosper, says Jake Canull, Head of the Americas at Top Employers Institute.
Our new Top Employers report, ‘World of work trends 2025: The collective workforce’ couldn’t be more timely for US businesses. It explores the five key trends that will shape the future of work in 2025 globally and, for me, the first trend – ‘building sustainable workplaces together’ – has a particular resonance.
| In the US, we are seeing five sweeping trends in the market |
| Labor force growth. In 2025, the number of working Americans is expected to rise to almost 170 million people, with healthcare employment growing particularly quickly. |
| The aging workforce. The share of workers aged 55+ in the US is expected to increase significantly in the year ahead. The baby boomer generation will be in the workforce for some while yet. |
| Technology and innovation. With the breathtaking evolution of AI in the US (and everywhere else), we are seeing a rapid churn of old and new professions. The popular narrative has been about job replacement through AI, but one study from the World Economic Forum suggests that while AI may have replaced 85 million jobs by 2025, it will have created 97 million new ones, due to the evolving division of labor between humans machines and algorithms. |
| Work-life balance. In the coming year, 90% of businesses in the US plan to keep a measure of hybrid working. This makes good sense – our own data shows that companies that can sustain a diverse workforce are more likely to achieve above average profitability. |
| AI-powered leadership combines human creativity with technological insights, helping leaders guide their organisations through complexity and change. |
In 2025, organizations across the US will face substantial pressure to address all these challenges. Fortunately, many of our Top Employers are already stepping up to the challenge by delivering their vision of sustainable workplaces.
Our research among global participants for our Top Employers Institute’s HR Best Practices Survey for 2025, the basis for ‘World of work trends 2025: The collective workforce’, suggests that some of the biggest adoption increases lie in this area -and in particularly in the US. For example, reporting social and environmental performance indicators was up 7 percentage points (12 in the US), and we saw substantial jumps in integrating sustainability into HR processes like performance management, up 4 percentage points (13 in the US), total rewards, up 3 percentage points (22 in the US) and recognition practices up 2 percentage points (6 in the US).
To build these workplaces of the future, HR needs to balance employee needs, organizational goals, and societal expectations to maintain and build on these gains. And if it can, it can become an influential force for good for employees and employers alike.
The Top Employers Institute Certification recognizes leading organizations around the world for their commitment to their employees and fantastic people practices.
