Most adults agree that continuous learning increases job security

By: Amanda Phagan, Edited by: Rebecca Munday, Reviewed by: Holly Lee

Published: October 17, 2025

If you've applied for a job over the past few years, you may have noticed that simply meeting role requirements is no longer enough to land a job or remain secure in your current role.

According to a spring 2025 edX survey, satisfying your current role's requirements may not be enough to remain securely employed, either. In fact, 70% of survey respondents, including 78% of managers, said upskilling — building upon an existing skillset for professional advancement — is important to ensuring job security.

An increasingly competitive job market may be partly to blame. Two-thirds of survey respondents said the state of the economy has them considering upskilling or reskilling (learning an entirely new skill or set of skills).

Learn more about what this data means and what you can do to ensure job security in our guide.

For management, upskilling is even more important for job security

According to our spring 2025 survey, supervisors were even more likely than non-supervisors to say that ensuring job security is a "top benefit" of pursuing additional education and/or training (29% of supervisors vs. 24% of non-supervisors). This metric indicates that employers may be inclined to recognize, employ, and promote employees who prioritize upskilling over those who do not.

Additionally, according to the World Economic Forum's 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 63% of employers surveyed identified skill gaps as the biggest barrier to business transformation from 2025 to 2030.

Due to these skill gaps, 85% of employers plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce:

The connection between upskilling and job security varies by industry

While the correlation between upskilling and perceived job security appears to be strong across industries, employers in certain fields seem to prioritize it more than others. In the 2025 edX survey, 82% of all managers surveyed said it's necessary for workers in their industry to pursue additional education or training annually to stay competitive.

"Continuous learning is crucial in the technology industry because it evolves at a faster pace than most others. New tools, programming languages, and innovations emerge constantly, accompanied by rising competition," Holly Lee, a tech recruiter with over 20 years of experience, said.

Upskilling for job security is favored most by millennials, especially in leadership

Different generations in the workplace also seem to view upskilling differently. Millennial managers, for example, were more likely than any other group to view upskilling as important for their job security, with 85% agreeing that it's crucial.

"Managers who continue to learn can make better decisions, model growth for their teams, and ensure their organizations remain competitive," Lee said.

The majority (71%) of this same group said they will need to begin upskilling within the next six months to maintain employment, signaling urgency, uncertainty, or anxiety around AI's impact on the current landscape. High inflation, unpredictable market conditions, an increase in global tariffs, and rising unemployment could also play a role in this perceived economic uncertainty.