Research
The transition economy in numbers: what the workforce data is telling us
22 April 2026 · 10 min read
A short read of recent UK workforce, retirement and AI-adoption data — and what it implies for how we develop people over the next ten years.
Three lines on the same chart: an ageing senior workforce, a younger cohort entering work with very different expectations, and a fast-moving wave of AI-shaped role change. Read together, they describe a transition economy — not a transition project.
The implication is uncomfortable for traditional L&D. The half-life of specific technical skills keeps shortening. The half-life of the underlying capability to learn, adapt and lead does not.
Designing for the next decade means investing further upstream: in the conditions, relationships and habits that let people keep developing long after a given programme ends.