Analysis of 1M+ workers across 150+ countries reveals that top startups hire abroad for top talent, not cost savings

NEW YORK, March 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Deel, the leading global HR and payroll platform, today released its annual State of Global Hiring Report, the most comprehensive analysis of how companies hire across borders. Drawing on data from more than one million workers spanning 37,000+ companies in 150+ countries, the 2025 report reveals four seismic shifts in the global labor market: AI training has emerged as a distinct, global profession, top-funded startups are hiring internationally for specialized talent rather than cost savings, remote workers are migrating back toward cities, and contractors in volatile economies are frequently “currency hopping” into USD and stablecoins to protect their earnings.

AI Is Creating Jobs, Not Just Replacing Them
The report reveals a rapid emergence of AI trainers as a new, expansive global profession that barely existed a few years ago. Over 70,000 workers now train AI systems across more than 600 organizations, performing tasks from basic data annotation to expert-level feedback in medicine, economics, and translation. General AI trainer roles grew 283% cross-border in 2025, making it the single fastest-growing cross-border role on Deel’s platform. Additional key findings on AI trainers:

Pay is sharply bifurcated: 30% of trainers earn $15–20/hour for annotation work, while 19% earn $50–75/hour, and 6% earn $100+/hour for subject-matter expertise.
58% of AI trainers are based in the U.S., followed by India (7.2%), the Philippines (4.6%), Canada (2.1%), and Kenya (1.7%).
A gender pay gap persists: in the U.S., male AI trainers earn a median of $50/hour vs. $30/hour for female trainers, driven by occupational segmentation across specializations.

Top Startups Go Global for Talent, Not Cost Savings
Among nearly 100 startups founded between 2020 and 2025 that raised $100M+ in funding, cross-border hiring overwhelmingly targets wealthy, high-income countries, shattering the myth that international hiring is primarily about cost-cutting.

The UK leads top-startup hires (12.2%), followed by Canada (11.9%), Germany (8.8%), Australia (5.8%), and Spain (5.2%) – all high-income markets.
Software developers make up 28% of cross-border hires among top startups, followed by tech sales (6.2%), business developers (4%), and AI engineers (2%).
Top startups are 13.6 percentage points more likely to hire software developers cross-border than general SMBs.
Seven of the top 10 cross-border roles globally are in sales, marketing, or customer-facing functions – local market knowledge remains nearly impossible to automate.

The Urban Boomerang: Remote Workers Are Moving Back Toward Cities
After a pandemic-era exodus from major cities, remote workers are gradually migrating back. The average distance of cross-border employees from major urban centers increased between 2021 and 2022, but has declined every year since then. In the U.S., workers are now as close to major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco as they were in 2021. Similar patterns appear in London and Paris.

Global Compensation: Leadership Roles Drive Pay Growth, Regional Gaps Widen
Salary growth in 2025 concentrated in senior leadership positions, but the drivers varied dramatically by region:

U.S. project managers led all roles at 24.5% compensation growth, followed by COOs (21.6%) and CEOs (20%).
COOs in Latin America saw 99.8% compensation growth – nearly 5x the U.S. rate for the same role.
LATAM financial analysts saw 195.5% compensation growth, reflecting the rapid professionalization of operational roles in emerging markets.

Workers Are “Currency Hopping” to Protect Earnings
As part of the “currency hopping” trend, contractors in economically volatile markets with high inflation are frequently choosing USD or stablecoins over local currencies to protect their purchasing power.

USD appeared in 5 of the 10 most common country-currency payment combinations globally in 2025.
In Argentina, more contractors chose USD than their local currency.
Bolivia’s USD adoption directly tracks inflation: when inflation rises, contractors shift to USD; when it stabilizes, local currency rebounds.
Argentina leads stablecoin adoption, followed by Cameroon, South Korea, Turkey, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Sri Lanka, and Ukraine.
When Croatia and Bulgaria adopted the euro, workers didn’t fully switch—many maintained USD as a hedge alongside their new local currency (the euro).

“This year’s data tells a story that touches on many of the hot topics of this specific moment in time, and demystifies what is actually happening on the ground,” said Lauren Thomas, Economist at Deel. “What intrigues me the most is that we now have proof that hiring internationally isn’t driven by shrinking budgets, but an intense competition for the best talent. That talent still lives in major metro areas, closer to big cities than they have in recent years, and they’re a hot commodity for companies around the world. Post-pandemic, there is a slow crawl towards the urban centers that were always where top talent gravitated towards.”

“The rise of ‘currency hopping’ and stablecoin payments is a direct signal that workers are taking global mobility into their own hands,” said Kristine Lipscomb, General Manager of Global Mobility at Deel. “When a contractor in Argentina chooses to get paid in USD or stablecoins instead of pesos, it’s not just a financial decision. It’s a vote of confidence in the global, borderless economy. Companies that want to attract and retain the best talent worldwide need to offer the flexibility to match how modern workers actually want to be paid.”

Additional Findings

Cross-border hiring corridors follow language and proximity, not cost: the U.S. or UK appears in the top 3 worker countries for every major hiring market.
Enterprises hire through EOR software for compliance and risk (data analysts, fraud examiners, compliance directors); SMBs hire for growth (software developers, customer service, sales).
For cross-border employees of record, professional and business services is the fastest-growing industry, followed by government/nonprofits and manufacturing.
When including all worker types, healthcare and life sciences is the top-growth industry, followed by real estate and construction.
Legal case managers (164% growth) and medical administrative assistants (123% growth) are among the fastest-growing cross-border roles alongside AI trainers.

The full 2025 State of Global Hiring Report is available here.

About Deel
The way the world works has changed – and Deel has built the standard to power it all. We make it effortless to hire, manage, pay, and equip any worker, anywhere. Deel is one platform for payroll, HR, benefits, mobility, performance, and device management across 150 countries. Built on owned infrastructure, powered by AI, and supported by thousands of local experts, Deel helps businesses scale smarter, faster, and more compliantly. Trusted by 40,000+ customers, and created to become a global brand people love. Learn more at deel.com.

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