Global Talent Mobility Is Slowing and Shifting

The global mobility of highly skilled talent has taken a hit. For the first time since 2020, the pace of movement across the more than 200 countries we track has fallen. But global talent mobility is not only slowing, it’s shifting. The Middle East is growing into a globally competitive talent hot spot, overtaking established hubs in the West.

In our data through August 2025, international movement among highly skilled individuals dropped by 8.5% relative to the prior year. (See “Methodology.”) That means that about 220,000 fewer highly skilled individuals relocated internationally with the intent to work in their new country long term or permanently. Although surprisingly large in magnitude, this drop followed a trend that was already in motion in our prior review, when mobility continued to grow but slowed by 0.4% from 2023 to 2024.

Still, 2.4 million highly skilled workers have been on the move in the last 12 months, and some countries continue to see rising inflows of talent. The US is still the leading talent magnet (and saw growing inflows in 2025), and the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are increasingly attractive, too.

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Behind the Overall Slowdown

The bulk of the slowdown comes from the diminished movement of highly skilled, albeit nontechnical, workers; the drop is less pronounced among STEM and AI talent. Three principal reasons explain the overall slowdown: geopolitical uncertainty, weaker hiring in many major economies, and tighter migration policies, notably in Canada and the UK.

In fact, in our most recent data, Canada and the UK have dipped in the rankings in terms of share of mobile talent attracted. Canada, the country with the third greatest share of highly skilled and STEM talent in 2024, dropped to fourth place on both measures in 2025. The UK still holds the second largest share of highly skilled and AI talent but has slipped to third in STEM talent. Germany, amid a broad-based slowdown of its manufacturing-intensive economy, is also seeing its talent inflows decrease by 9%, while outflows of global and domestic talent increase by 3%.

Meanwhile, the US remains dominant, with an overall 2.4-percentage-point rise in market share. Among STEM talent, the US made even greater gains: a 3.3-percentage-point increase.

Emerging hubs—particularly in the Middle East—are making their mark among mobile talent. The UAE alone attracted about 178,000 highly skilled professionals in 2025. In fact, the UAE now ranks among the top three destinations for highly skilled, STEM, and AI talent. Saudi Arabia is not far behind, boosted in part by its ability not just to attract but also to retain top talent (in other words, talent outflows from Saudi Arabia were relatively low in 2025). Parts of Asia are attracting mobile talent, too, with India, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia scoring increased inflows in 2025.

Institutions of Mobile Knowledge

Highly skilled individuals still overwhelmingly emerge from institutions of higher learning. In this edition, we analyzed the career paths of more than 900,000 mobile STEM and AI professionals and identified the institutes generating the most globally mobile professionals. We found, for example, that India’s Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University led the way in AI, with the highest number of graduates—and the highest percentage of graduates—who had acquired AI expertise and were working abroad. Overall, universities in India were the primary source of global AI talent; seven of the top ten are in India.

The institutions in our top ten list boast large, worldwide alumni networks. These networks give graduates robust resources for finding jobs. And the track record established by these universities’ mobile experts signals that these are ideal “recruiting grounds” for companies seeking new talent. More broadly, globally open and employable talent comes from many places, and not always just elite institutions in their respective countries.

Considerations for Leaders

Private-sector leaders should ask:

• Are talent and talent development truly top priorities for us?
• Do we lack the right talent (for example, in digital or GenAI)? What’s the financial impact? In what areas are we unable to upskill current employees?
• What is our employee value proposition—what promise can we make to highly skilled workers?

Public-sector leaders of top talent destination countries and cities should ask:

• Do we have a fit-for-purpose immigration system for highly skilled workers?
• How can we build state- and city-level innovation hubs to attract talent?
• How could we use talent funds to incentivize companies to attract and retain talent?

Public-sector leaders of top talent origin countries should ask:

• How can we upskill our workforces to find meaningful work at home and abroad?
• Do we have a clear talent brand to attract and reattract talent?
• How can we enhance companies’ capacity to retain our best talent?

The global competition for talent is an ongoing and dynamic contest, as the shifting “scores” yielded by our most recent research make clear. Countries and companies that want to lead in business and technology must continue to seek ways to attract and retain highly skilled talent.