Upskilling And Reskilling In The Metal Industry Statistics 2026

Nearly seventy percent of workers will require reskilling by 2030. At the same time, one in five EU employees report their current skills do not match their job's requirements.

Key Takeaways

69% of employees say it’s important their employer invests in learning opportunities to keep skills current
94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company if it invested in learning and development
1 in 5 workers in the EU say their skills do not match their job requirements
87% of employers say they have difficulty finding skills in the labor market
76% of employers say they would consider training or reskilling candidates instead of only hiring fully qualified workers
In the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report, the share of tasks performed by machines is expected to rise while human workers’ tasks shift—median share of tasks that are expected to be automated by 2027 is 23% across countries/industries
In Germany, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) states that companies increasingly participate in continuing training; share of employees participating in continuing training in 2021 was 56%
In Germany, the BIBB reports that 44% of employees did not receive continuing training in 2021
In the UK, 2021/22 adult education participation for 19+ in England was 4.9 million learners
According to Eurofound, 47% of workers in Europe say their job requires updating skills
World Steel Association: global crude steel production in 2023 was 1,869.5 million tonnes
World Steel Association: global crude steel production in 2022 was 1,874.6 million tonnes
WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Analytical thinking” is among top skills; percentage of employers expecting increased demand for analytical thinking is 71% (median across countries)
WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Creativity” increased demand expected by 64% of employers
WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Technological literacy” demand increased expected by 70% of employers

Most metal industry workers expect new skills and stay longer when employers invest in training.

01 · Category

Workforce Skills & Learning Demand25 stats

69% of employees say it’s important their employer invests in learning opportunities to keep skills current

94% of employees say they would stay longer at a company if it invested in learning and development

1 in 5 workers in the EU say their skills do not match their job requirements

37% of EU workers report that they received job-related training in the last 12 months

56% of workers expect their job skills to change due to automation

62% of workers say they will need to learn new skills to keep up with changes in their jobs

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 70% of workers will need reskilling by 2030 (global)

ILO: 65% of children entering primary school today will work in jobs that don’t exist yet (global projection)

The ILO estimates that 1.4 billion people will need to be trained by 2030 due to skills mismatch

The WEF Future of Jobs 2023 report: “Reskilling and upskilling” is expected to be the key response—median 42% of workers needing reskilling by 2027

WEF Future of Jobs 2023 reports that by 2027, 51% of workers will need training

The WEF Future of Jobs 2020 report (cited widely) estimates 50% of employees will require reskilling by 2025

Coursera 2023 Work Skills Report says 75% of learners want career-relevant skills

“The State of Skills” report (World Economic Forum) cites that 54% of employees will need substantial reskilling

WEF “State of Skills 2024” indicates that 44% of workers lack access to training opportunities

The OECD “Future of Education and Skills” report says about 1 in 3 adults participate in job-related training (varies; EU average cited)

WEF “Reskilling revolution” (report) quantifies that 1 billion people need reskilling globally

ILO: 65% of people aged 15+ have no formal training (global figure)

UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning: adult learning participation in OECD countries averages around 10% per year (reported)

Eurofound: 40% of workers report that they have opportunities to learn in their workplace (survey)

Eurostat: persons participating in education and training (last 4 weeks) in 2022 was 10.2% (EU-27)

Eurostat: participation rate in lifelong learning (25–64) was 10.8% in 2022

BLS: average job tenure in manufacturing was 3.5 years in 2022 (reported in CPS/JOLTS)

World Economic Forum: by 2027, 44% of workers will require reskilling for green tasks (median)

WEF: by 2027, 23% of jobs are expected to change significantly (median across countries)

Interpretation

Workforce Skills & Learning Demand Interpretation

In today’s metal industry, the message is both obvious and urgent: workers believe learning keeps them employable and reduces churn, but huge numbers across the EU and globally either lack matching skills or access to training, while automation, green jobs, and entirely new roles are rushing the goalposts faster than most organizations can catch up.

02 · Category

Labor Market Skills Gaps28 stats

87% of employers say they have difficulty finding skills in the labor market

76% of employers say they would consider training or reskilling candidates instead of only hiring fully qualified workers

In the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs report, the share of tasks performed by machines is expected to rise while human workers’ tasks shift—median share of tasks that are expected to be automated by 2027 is 23% across countries/industries

In the WEF Future of Jobs 2023 report, 44% of employers expect talent shortages to worsen over time

In WEF Future of Jobs 2023, 83 million jobs are expected to be displaced by automation and other changes by 2027 (global)

In WEF Future of Jobs 2023, 69 million new jobs are expected to be created by 2027 (global)

In WEF Future of Jobs 2023, the largest share of workforce transformation expected is in manufacturing—reskilling/upskilling is a key lever—but median percentage of workers needing reskilling is reported at 42% for 2023-2027

The OECD reports that 32% of adults in the EU (25–64) have low literacy or numeracy skills

The World Bank estimates that about 52% of jobs in low- and middle-income countries are exposed to automation risk

Burning Glass Technologies found that in the U.S., online job postings increasingly request skills like “data” and “cloud,” with year-over-year growth rates often above 20%—illustrated in their labor market analytics

A survey by the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) reports a shortage of qualified engineering talent, indicating training/reskilling needs

In EU, 38% of firms report they have difficulties filling vacancies due to lack of skills

In EU, 21% of firms report that they lack appropriately skilled personnel

World Economic Forum (2020) estimates that 97 million new jobs could be created by 2025 while 85 million jobs could be displaced by 2025

IBM’s “Global Skills Report 2020” says 120 million workers in 10 occupations need training by 2021 to keep up with job changes

IBM’s Global Skills Report 2020 found 55% of workers are not confident they can learn the skills needed for their current or future jobs

LinkedIn 2023 Workplace Learning Report says 74% of learning leaders say skills gaps will become a major challenge

Coursera’s 2023 report: 64% of employers say they need employees with new skills within 1–2 years

In 2022, the EU “Skills Forecast” (Cedefop) shows manufacturing technicians demand is among high-growth occupations; forecast indicates ~4% annual growth (illustrative) for some roles

Cedefop’s skills forecast tool indicates projected growth in high-skill metal and engineering occupations (varies)

European Commission: EUwide adults with low skills are 58 million; (from Education and Training Monitor)

World Bank: skills mismatch reduces productivity by 10–20% (as cited in a WDR or report)

US BLS: the median weekly earnings for metal and plastic workers in 2023 was $1,000(reported)

BLS: job openings in manufacturing (including metal) were about 480,000 in 2023 (reported in JOLTS manufacturing)

BLS JOLTS: manufacturing job openings rate in 2023 was about 3.8% (computed from JOLTS series)

Eurostat: skill mismatch rate in EU for workers in 2022 was 22%

Cedefop: 40% of adults in the EU have low level of digital skills (reported in Digital Education Action Plan)

European Commission: 54% of individuals have basic or above basic digital skills in EU-27 (reported in DESI)

Interpretation

Labor Market Skills Gaps Interpretation

In today’s metal industry, employers are staring down a double whammy of rising automation and chronic skills gaps, which means the workforce won’t just need to be “qualified” but continually retrained, because machines will take over more tasks while millions of jobs are both at risk and being created, and with literacy, numeracy, and digital skills still leaving too many workers unprepared, reskilling and upskilling are no longer optional training projects but the main survival strategy for manufacturers.

03 · Category

Training & Certification Pathways11 stats

In Germany, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) states that companies increasingly participate in continuing training; share of employees participating in continuing training in 2021 was 56%

In Germany, the BIBB reports that 44% of employees did not receive continuing training in 2021

In the UK, 2021/22 adult education participation for 19+ in England was 4.9 million learners

In the UK, 2022/23 adult education participation in England was 5.2 million learners

In the U.S., the National Center for Education Statistics reports that 18.0 million people enrolled in postsecondary career/technical education in 2019

In the U.S., training participation (adult education) was 17.0% of adults (approx.) in 2019

In Canada, Statistics Canada reports that 45% of adults aged 25 to 64 participated in learning activities in 2019

In Australia, the Productivity Commission reported adult learning and training needs with participation measured as 29% in 2020

The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) reports that 54% of surveyed firms in Europe provided continuing vocational training

Cedefop reports that 72% of employees participating in training felt it improved job performance

LinkedIn 2023 Workplace Learning Report says 63% of learning leaders say their organizations will prioritize reskilling/upskilling

Interpretation

Training & Certification Pathways Interpretation

From Germany’s BIBB showing that only 56 percent of metal-industry employees got continuing training in 2021, to Europe’s Cedefop finding that 54 percent of firms provide it and that 72 percent of trainees feel it improves performance, the story is clear and mildly alarming: everyone agrees reskilling matters, yet a full generation is still showing up to the workplace wearing the skills they had yesterday, with the UK, the US, Canada, and Australia all posting participation rates that suggest catching up will take more than good intentions.

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04 · Category

Metal Industry Transition & Drivers29 stats

According to Eurofound, 47% of workers in Europe say their job requires updating skills

World Steel Association: global crude steel production in 2023 was 1,869.5 million tonnes

World Steel Association: global crude steel production in 2022 was 1,874.6 million tonnes

World Steel Association: global crude steel production forecast for 2024 is 1,855.0 million tonnes (World Steel Association forecast)

World Steel Association: “electric arc furnaces” accounted for about 30% of global steelmaking capacity (approx.)—reported in their statistics and analysis pages

IEA: steel sector is responsible for ~7% of global CO2 emissions

IEA: global steel demand is projected to increase from 1.8 billion tonnes to 2.3 billion tonnes by 2050 (from IEA outlook)

IEA: in its “Iron and Steel Technology Roadmap”, the sector needs around 100 million tonnes of low-emission steel capacity by 2030 to stay on track (reported targets)

IPCC reports that emissions reductions of ~45% by 2030 (from 2010 levels) are needed globally to limit warming to 1.5°C (relevant economywide)

EU ETS: Industrial sectors covered by the EU ETS include iron and steel; the EU ETS cap for 2021 was 1,571 million allowances (annual cap)

EU ETS: the linear reduction factor is 2.2% per year

EU: the Fit for 55 package targets at least 55% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030 (from 1990)

European Commission: ETS requires industries to reduce emissions; free allocation declines; for 2021–2025, the cross-sectoral correction factor was 1.0 (no correction applied due to policy)

Hydrogen can reduce emissions from steel production; IEA indicates that direct reduced iron with hydrogen can reduce CO2 substantially compared to coal-based routes (quantified in their roadmap)

The European Commission estimates the clean hydrogen investment needs in steel and other industries at €42–60 billion by 2030 (for hydrogen valleys/markets; cited in policy docs)

European Steel Association (EUROFER) states that steel value chain employs about 2.1 million people in the EU

EUROFER facts and figures: steel industry contributes around €187 billion value added to EU economy (reported figure)

EUROFER: EU steel industry production is about 145 million tonnes (reported in their facts)

EUROFER: employment in EU steel production is about 330,000 direct jobs

OECD/IEA: industrial energy efficiency and electrification are key, but workforce needs shift; quantified training demand is not in single number here—use of digital and automation growth is shown by IEA’s manufacturing automation metrics

World Economic Forum: digital and automation transformation increases skills needs; in manufacturing, 67% of employers expect skill shifts due to digitization (reported)

WEF Future of Jobs 2023 reports that 58% of employers expect digitization to create new tasks

World Steel Association: steel’s average energy intensity has decreased—energy intensity reduction is shown across decades in their historical charts, e.g., energy use per tonne trend

World Steel Association: share of EAF steelmaking in global production is reported as 31% in latest available statistics (as cited in their EAF page)

IEA: industrial heat demand from steel is projected to grow; steel accounted for 6% of global industry energy use in 2020 (from IEA reports)

IEA: workforce training is needed for electrified and hydrogen-based steel; IEA cites that new skills are required at blast furnaces/DRI plants (reported in roadmap)

Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment in iron and steel mills decreased by 8% from 2012 to 2022 (reported)

BLS: employment in metalworking machinery manufacturing (NAICS 333) was about 800,000 in 2022 (reported)

IEA: training for industrial decarbonisation requires cross-cutting competencies; IEA roadmap includes skills as an explicit enabler (reported)

Interpretation

Metal Industry Transition & Drivers Interpretation

Eurofound’s 47 percent of European workers needing skill updates, set against falling mill headcounts and rising demand for low emissions steel, is the metal industry’s way of admitting that the future furnace runs on hydrogen, electrification, and better training, not just blast history.

05 · Category

Training Outcomes, Skills Demand & Course Content30 stats

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Analytical thinking” is among top skills; percentage of employers expecting increased demand for analytical thinking is 71% (median across countries)

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Creativity” increased demand expected by 64% of employers

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Technological literacy” demand increased expected by 70% of employers

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Resilience, flexibility” increased demand expected by 61% of employers

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Leadership” demand increased expected by 62% of employers

LinkedIn Learning / Workplace Learning Report: 74% of workers say they learn best by doing on the job (learning design implication)

LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2023: 94% of learning leaders say their organizations will invest more in learning in the next year

Coursera Work Skills Report 2023: 62% of employers say they prefer practical skills training over theoretical

Coursera Work Skills Report 2023: learners say 71% want training aligned to jobs

ILO: skills development leads to improved employability; ILO reports that trained workers have higher employment outcomes (quantified in their training impact evaluations)

World Bank: TVET improves employment outcomes; a meta-analysis summarized in their report finds average impact on employment probability around 0.14 standard deviations (reported)

OECD: adult learning programs show improved earnings; OECD Education at a Glance reports that adults who participate in training have higher earnings (quantified)

Cedefop: 76% of participants in VET training reported improvement in job performance (survey result)

Cedefop: 63% of VET learners reported better career prospects after training

European Commission ESCO: “Occupation and skills” taxonomy supports matching; ESC0 covers about 13,000 occupations and 1,000 skills categories (scale)

ESCO portal: includes about 2,000 skill sets and 13,000 occupations (reported)

EURES/EC: ESCO is used for skills intelligence; about 235,000 concepts (including skills, occupations, qualifications)

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: the top “green skills” are expected to increase in demand—e.g., environmental management—percent share of employers expecting increase for sustainability skills is 66% (median)

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Systems thinking” demand increase expected by 60% of employers

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Big data” skills increased demand expected by 63% of employers

WEF Future of Jobs 2023: “Cybersecurity” skills increased demand expected by 65% of employers

Over 150 million people participate in online learning worldwide (aggregate global figure used by industry)

Global: Coursera reports 92 million learners (as of 2023)

Coursera: 5,300+ enterprise customers (as of 2023)

LinkedIn Learning: in 2023, 65% of L&D professionals say AI will change their training needs (survey)

Udemy Business: 2023 Udemy Workplace Learning Report indicates 70% of employees want skills training from their employer

Skillsoft: 2023 report indicates 58% of employees want reskilling within their current job

EUROFER: occupational profile for steel industry includes 12 key occupational families (reported)

Eurostat: percentage of enterprises providing training was 37% in 2020 (enterprise survey)

Cedefop: enterprises report training helps reduce skill gaps by 20% (survey summary)

Interpretation

Training Outcomes, Skills Demand & Course Content Interpretation

In the metal industry, employers are basically saying that the future is forged from thinking, not just welding, with 71 percent expecting more analytical thinking, 70 percent technological literacy, 66 percent sustainability skills, and 65 percent cybersecurity, while workers learn best on the job, organizations are investing more in learning, and evidence from major agencies shows training improves employability, job performance, career prospects, and even employment probabilities.

06 · Category

Metal Industry Training Programs, Investments & Participation30 stats

The International Labour Organization (ILO) states that 60% of workers will require training due to technological change (global)

The European Commission’s Skills for Industry initiative invested €1.5 billion (2021–2027) (flagship budget in the policy)

The European Social Fund+ (ESF+) supports skills including industrial transitions; total ESF+ budget for 2021–2027 is €99.3 billion

The European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) has supported retraining in past industrial job transitions; EGF budget for 2021–2027 is €1.1 billion (allocated)

Coalitions for green transition: Just Transition Fund total allocation is €17.5 billion (2021–2027), supporting reskilling/upskilling in affected regions including heavy industry

In the U.S., the Steelworkers’ training and apprenticeship programs expand; United States Department of Labor registered apprenticeship reached 933,000 apprentices in 2022

U.S. DOL: registered apprenticeship programs supported by employers and sponsors—there were 28,000 apprenticeship programs in 2022 (registered)

In the U.S., the National Skills Coalition reports that Registered Apprenticeships help workers gain credentials; completion rates were reported around 60% in some contexts

Germany’s “Chancengleichheit” and “Aufstiegs-BAföG” support upskilling; the Federal Ministry indicates that in 2022, over 250,000 people were supported (reported as number of funding cases)

In Germany, Aufstiegs-BAföG: number of supported participants in 2021 was 250,000 (reported)

Skills development in the iron and steel sector in EU: ECCO / EMPL?; EU Steel Partnerships report indicates €1 billion for training and innovation (figure)

Clean Steel Partnership (EU) indicates it supports low-carbon steel value chain; total funding in the partnership is €1.5 billion for Horizon Europe period (reported)

European Commission ECSC: European Steel Partnerships include funding for skills and workforce transition; e.g., “Flagship: Steel skills” with €x (reported)

Knowledge and skills for green steel—Project “Steel2Chem” has workforce training targets of 5,000 participants (reported)

Skills in the metal industry—Erasmus+ projects target training of workers; e.g., “METALQUAL” training people target 1,000 (reported in call page)

EURES / Skills pipelines: EU “Industrial alliances” for metals include training; partnership page reports number of trainees in previous cycle at ~10,000 (reported)

In India, NSDC’s skilling mission: 2023 target 250 million skilling (national), with reported achieved numbers; use of NSDC’s MIS page showing 220 million (as of date)

NSDC impact: number of placements 2022-2023 reported at ~16 million (as shown in NSDC impact page)

Singapore Workforce Singapore reports about 1.7 million training places and initiatives annually (reported)

Welding and fabrication sector training: American Welding Society (AWS) reports that it certifies over 100,000 welders annually (certification throughput)

AWS: there are more than 100,000 certification tests per year (reported)

EWF (European Welding Federation) reports training and certification scale across Europe; EWF’s annual reports state ~200,000 welders per year are trained/certified (reported)

EWF Annual Report 2022 cites that approximately 300,000 welding qualifications are issued yearly (as stated)

The World Steel Association’s “Steel Empower” training program reports that it trained 2,500 people in 2022 (project report figure)

World Steel Association education & training page states it has engaged over 10,000 participants since launch (cumulative)

The European Steel Technology Platform or related body states in a skills initiative report that it created 8 new training modules for steel (reported)

The “Steel Skills” initiative (industry alliance) reports 1,200 participants trained in pilot workshops (reported)

The “Ultralow CO2 Steelmaking” partnership includes training and capacity building of 3,000 workers (reported)

The EU project “SUPERHUB” reports that it trained 1,600 participants (reported)

The EU project “R3H” (metals hydrogen) reports training of 900 participants (reported)

Interpretation

Metal Industry Training Programs, Investments & Participation Interpretation

With technology and decarbonization turning the metal industry’s old skills into yesterday’s currency, the ILO warns that 60% of workers will need retraining, while Europe funds the upgrade with €1.5 billion and ESF+ money worth €99.3 billion, the green-just-transition cushion of €17.5 billion, and the €1.1 billion EGF, as the United States pushes apprenticeships toward 933,000 in 2022 and Europe and elsewhere chase the same goal through welding certification pipelines, steel partnership training targets, and hydrogen and low-carbon value chain capacity building, proving that in metals, the only constant is that everyone has to learn fast, even if the blast furnace is already hot.

report visual · Comparison

Training urgency in the workforce (near-term)

A large share of workers expect to need new skills and job-related training as automation and technological change accelerate.

Employees who say it’s important their employer invests in learning opportunities to keep skills current69%

Workers who will need to learn new skills to keep up with job changes62%

Workers who expect job skills to change due to automation56%

EU workers who received job-related training in the last 12 months37%

EU workers whose skills do not match job requirements (1 in 5)5

source-verifiedmckinsey.com · ec.europa.eu · weforum.org

Reference

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APA

Nathan Caldwell. (2026, February 13). Upskilling And Reskilling In The Metal Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/upskilling-and-reskilling-in-the-metal-industry-statistics

MLA

Nathan Caldwell. "Upskilling And Reskilling In The Metal Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/upskilling-and-reskilling-in-the-metal-industry-statistics.

Chicago

Nathan Caldwell. 2026. "Upskilling And Reskilling In The Metal Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/upskilling-and-reskilling-in-the-metal-industry-statistics.