The Mid-Career Stall: Helping the Workforce Get Their Drive Back

A car’s engine might stall for several reasons:

• It’s running on empty.
• It’s overloaded.
• Or, it has lost its (electrical) spark.

The same can be said for many white-collar workers.

Almost 1 in 4 U.S. workers in this demographic are experiencing a “mid-career stall,” defined as working at least five years without a promotion or meaningful raise, according to new research from the Burning Glass Institute and New York University’s School of Professional Studies. The researchers defined “mid-career” as the period roughly 10 years after a worker starts their occupation.

Drawing on data from 1.3 million mid-career professionals across a range of industries over 25 years, the study found when these workers hit the 10-year mark, those who ultimately stall out have already fallen behind, averaging just 1.5 promotions and 45% wage growth, compared to 1.9 promotions and 66% growth for peers who avoid a stall.

“This is largely an invisible problem,” said Carlo Salerno, the Burning Glass Institute’s managing director of education insights and one of the study authors. “[These] mid-career professionals are steadily employed but have effectively stopped advancing. Because they’re not unemployed, they don’t show up in traditional labor market statistics, yet the economic consequences are substantial for both workers and employers.”

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What Causes a Mid-Career Stall?

According to Salerno, a stallout isn’t usually a sudden event — it’s the culmination of a slow loss of career momentum.

“That early divergence compounds over time, making the 10-year point less the beginning of the problem than the point where the warning signs become clearly visible,” he explained.

Eric Lee, the senior vice president of services and support at workforce agility and talent management platform Cornerstone OnDemand, noted the 10-year mark matters because it’s where early career momentum is supposed to turn into long-term career trajectory. Instead, it often becomes an inflection point.

“Roles become more complex, competition for advancement is more noticeable and the skills that helped someone succeed earlier in their career may no longer be enough to move them forward,” he said. “If organizations haven’t built clear internal mobility pathways, targeted development and regular role evolution, workers can hit a ceiling they never saw coming.”

Additional research from Cornerstone OnDemand found 56% of workers have no clear upskilling path, either because their employer hasn’t defined one or hasn’t communicated it.

“If you layer an artificial intelligence [AI] skills gap on top of a mid-career stall, people become increasingly invisible inside their organizations,” Lee said. “The research shows that 30% of employees say AI has already transformed their role, often without any formal acknowledgment from their employer. That invisible evolution means a lot of mid-career workers are navigating a fundamentally different job than the one they were hired into, without the support to match.”

“If organizations haven’t built clear internal mobility pathways, targeted development and regular role evolution, workers can hit a ceiling they never saw coming.” — Eric Lee, SVP, Cornerstone OnDemand

What Are the Warning Signs?

The clearest warning signs are surprisingly measurable and often emerge years before someone would officially be considered stalled, said Salerno. These signs may include:

• Promotions begin to slow early in a career.
• Wage growth falls well behind comparable peers.
• Workers remain in the same type of role for extended periods without expanding responsibilities.
• Skills stop evolving in ways that match changing employer demand.

Kevin Tamanini, the vice president of professional services and customer success at leadership consulting firm DDI, added four items to the list:

• Low engagement scores;
• Disconnected associates;
• Job hugging; and
• Increased discussions around compensation.

“Ultimately, leaders should be close enough to their associates to understand what their engagement triggers are,” he said. “If they are not, then they are making too many assumptions. Talk to your people to understand what matters to them and how to keep them both engaged, productive and feeling valued.”

From the employer side, Lee said it often shows up in stale job descriptions, performance management systems decoupled from skills development and a lack of clear internal mobility pathways.

“In other words, the organization says it values growth, but the system doesn’t make it possible,” he said.

How Employers Can Help Shift the Gears

According to Terri Schell, a learning and development practice leader at risk management and consulting firm Gallagher, organizations can prevent mid-career stalls by:

• Paying attention to employee career progress; and,
• Identifying those at risk of stalling out well before that critical 10-year mark and developing interventions to keep those employees progressing.

“This requires strengthening pipelines, presenting planful and meaningful growth and skill-development opportunities, and helping employees ‘bloom where they’re planted’ if advancement isn’t available,” she said.

For Tamanini, it starts with leadership.

“Managers need to understand what drives engagement and retention for each employee and create opportunities for continuous development, new experiences and meaningful conversations about career growth,” he said. “Employees don’t necessarily need a promotion every year, but they do need to feel they’re learning, contributing and moving forward.”

Lee agreed, stating development conversations often happen only when someone is being considered for a promotion, which is too late. Instead, organizations should give employees a clear view into what skills future roles require and create more opportunities to build those skills before a promotion is on the table. That means using internal mobility more intentionally, he said, and connecting learning to business needs and moving away from a system where job titles matter more than real capabilities.

And, as AI reshapes work, Lee added employees should understand how their roles are changing and what skills will keep them relevant tomorrow.

“Organizations that actively map skills, identify emerging gaps and connect employees to targeted development opportunities are far more likely to keep mid-career talent engaged and progressing,” he said.

Editor’s Note: Additional Content

For more information and resources related to this article, see the pages below, which offer quick access to all WorldatWork content on these topics:

• Career Growth
• Employee Experience
• Total Rewards
• Workforce Engagement