Talent mobility: a brake on international careers (-11.6 per cent)
In 2025, France and Spain will gain market share in the EU. Italia holds its ground. Globally, Canada is losing its appeal. Saudi Arabia’s popularity is on the rise.
Key points
Talent is on the move less and less, and when it does, it opts for an ever-narrowing range of destinations. This is the picture that emerges from the figures in the Boston Consulting Group’s new BCG Top Talent Tracker 2026 (BCG), which analysed mobility data for 221 million professionals across more than 200 destinations worldwide, revealing a marked decline in the trend towards international mobility among highly skilled professionals in 2025. Cross-border moves have fallen from 3.7 million to 3.3 million, representing a decrease of around 430,000 people compared with the previous year. This means that, after years of growth, the mobility of skilled talent has contracted by 11.6 per cent, with the sharpest decline occurring precisely in those areas where it matters most, namely research (-19%), STEM (-13%) and AI (-12%).
The figures
The analysis divides these professionals into four categories of ‘talent’: specialists (those with at least a bachelor’s degree), STEM, AI and the category of researchers (with a PhD). And whilst the overall trend shows a decline, a closer look reveals that competition for those changing jobs is intensifying, particularly in the case of AI talent. This is no coincidence; indeed, for some it is almost to be expected, given that the survey finds that companies which attract the most global talent into leadership roles generate one percentage point more shareholder value each year.
The map
But it is not just the figures that have changed; the trends underlying this phenomenon have also shifted. ‘At European level,’ the report explains, ‘the picture is divided into two: France and Spain are gaining ground in all the categories monitored, standing out amongst their European peers, whilst the sharpest declines are recorded in Germany (-13.7%), the Netherlands (-15.2 per cent), Poland (-20.9 per cent) and Portugal (-21.3 per cent). Despite the decline in the number of qualified researchers, Germany ranks third globally as a destination for research talent, with several English-speaking hubs losing ground to the continent in this regard.”
Italia
Surprisingly, our country has shown a improvement in its ability to retain talent; the number of people leaving has in fact fallen more rapidly than the number arriving (-12.7 per cent compared with -9.8 per cent), which means that in 2025, fewer qualified professionals moved abroad than in the previous year.
As for the individual figures, our country is proving to be a net exporter of AI talent: 6,102 AI professionals arrived in 2025 compared with 6,300 who left, a net loss of around 200 people. But where are Italian talents heading? The United States is the main destination (11,136 qualified professionals, 750 AI specialists, 582 researchers), followed by Spain (6,625), France (4,610), Germany (4,092), Switzerland (3,862) and the United Kingdom (3,653).
