Chronic worker stress reached a new low in 2024, with the share of people reporting daily on-the-job stress plunging from 15 percent in 2023 to 7.5 percent last year. The decline continues a trend that began after the pandemic, with fewer people each year reporting high-frequency, negative on-the-job stress. But this relief hasn’t coincided with a boost in the share of workers who are thriving at work.

Nearly 1 in 5 workers worldwide reported being fully engaged on the job in 2024, a record high in data going back a decade. It was the third straight year that the share of engaged workers grew. The global share of engaged employees now stands at 19 percent, 5 percentage points higher than its pandemic low of 2020, when only 14 percent of workers reported feeling fully engaged on the job.

Colleges and vocational schools prepare young adults to enter the job market. But the learning process can’t stop there. With rapid-fire advances in technology bearing down on employers and their workers, on-the-job training and continuing education have become just as important as post-secondary schooling, if not more so. Even workers with advanced college degrees might need to bolster their on-the-job skills.