Feeling stuck? One in four workers lack advancement opportunities, survey finds

(TNND) — A quarter of American workers say they don’t have a path for career advancement, which might be especially troubling for employees who feel stuck in the cooling jobs market.

The finding comes from a larger study on job quality that was released Thursday by Gallup.

More than 60% did say they have advancement opportunities, with the rest saying the question wasn’t applicable to them or declining to give an answer.

Workers with less education and those who work at smaller companies reported fewer advancement opportunities.

Opportunities for advancement are very, very important,” said Susan Houseman, a senior economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and one of the researchers who collaborated on the study.

Advancement opportunities aren’t just important for individual workers.

Houseman said companies can improve morale and reduce turnover by offering their folks room to grow.

Molly Blankenship, a director at Jobs for the Future and an author on the study, said the gap in growth opportunities is a key barrier to job quality.

“For many American workers, a quality job is about more than just pay or benefits,” Blankenship said. “It’s also about the chance to grow. And especially, I think, in today’s rapidly changing economy, with AI hitting the scene in the way it is and that sort of thing, a job providing opportunities to grow your skills, hone them, helps workers remain competitive, and thus the businesses that are employing them.”

Blankenship, Houseman and others, including those at Gallup, spent well over a year on the American Job Quality Study, surveying more than 18,000 American workers on dimensions of job quality such as pay, culture, schedules and more.

The study also found that training opportunities aren’t evenly distributed or available to workers.

A lot of the on-the-job training is going to employees who already have the most formal education.

“This is also about making sure that our investments in training and development and advancement are going to the right places,” Blankenship said.

Meanwhile, another new report showed this week that a lot of families don’t think pay is keeping up with inflation.

Bankrate found that 62% don’t think their paychecks have kept pace with prices in the last year.

That’s the highest share of Americans who feel like they’re falling behind in four years of tracking from Bankrate.

“Everybody is just stuck right now,” Bankrate analyst Sarah Foster said. “And the bad thing is, it’s happening at a time when inflation is picking back up again, accelerating in some cases on the items that many Americans need, because of tariffs.”

The Bankrate survey found that 44% of people got a pay raise in the last year.

Just 7% got a better paying job.

Foster said the 4.3% unemployment rate is masking how tough the jobs market is right now.

The last monthly jobs report, which was released Sept. 5 and covered the month of August, showed U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs. The government shutdown has delayed fresh updates.

American employees continue to enjoy near-record-high job security, with the firing rate at just 1.1%.

But the hiring rate, 3.2%, is also in a range that is the lowest in over a decade.

Foster put the low hiring rate in perspective, noting that the unemployment rate was hovering around 7% the last time the hiring rate was so low.

That was in the wake of the Great Recession.

“So, if you’re employed, you’re lucky,” she said. “You have a historically low layoff rate. You have a low unemployment rate. It’s a good time to be employed. But if you’re job hunting, if you’re looking to switch positions, if you’re unemployed and trying to find something different, this job market” feels pretty bad.

Andrew Seaman, the editor-at-large for Jobs & Career Development at LinkedIn News, said workers who feel stuck, who don’t see advancement opportunities, should talk with their boss.

“Just having those conversations, I think, it benefits you. It benefits the employer. It invites creativity and innovation, and especially with AI and a lot of things changing, it just helps everyone to keep an employee in their seat,” Seaman said.

Seaman advised people not to quit their jobs unless they’re in a horribly hostile environment. But he also said people shouldn’t be afraid to explore outside opportunities, with a focus on companies that can provide career growth.

He said workers should develop their careers independently from their employers.

Take the initiative to seek out skill enhancement through online courses and the like.

Networking can offer new opportunities.

And Seaman said employers are seeking workers who have the ability to adapt to the changing landscape.

Blankenship also viewed employees as key stakeholders in their own career growth.

And she dispelled the notion that small companies are powerless to offer opportunities for workers to build skills, gain experience or advance.

Blankenship said firms of any size can embrace mentorship, which she said can have a big impact on worker satisfaction.

“I’m hoping that this research starts to expose a wider menu of options, including for small businesses who have maybe to date have felt like their hands were tied when it came to some of these issues,” Blankenship said.