The international movement of highly skilled professionals fell sharply in 2025, with cross-border relocations dropping from 3.7 million to 3.3 million, a decline of 11.6% and roughly 430,000 fewer movers than the year prior, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in its latest talent survey. Romania performed the worst among Central and Eastern European countries in attracting and retaining talent.
Several European countries, mostly France, Spain, and Germany, have managed to strengthen their positions in the race for foreign students with university diplomas.
While overall mobility contracted, competition for the workers who do choose to move, particularly those with AI expertise, showed signs of intensification, according to the study.
France and Spain have managed to attract STEM talents, AI specialists, and research talent, while Germany has become the third most attractive country globally for those with a PhD.
“Global talent flows have slowed, but competition for the most important talent from a strategic point of view has intensified,” said Adam Kotsis, BCG Director. “Highly qualified specialists prefer countries where innovation is strong, professional opportunities are attractive, and careers are for the long term,” he added.
The race for talent is also a race for economic prowess. Countries that lead in talent for a given technology are 17 times more likely to also lead in that technology, according to the research.
While global talent mobility declined by nearly 12%, Central and Eastern Europe saw an even steeper fall: talent arriving in the region fell by 28% to 58,000. The most dramatic fall was recorded in Romania, where the inflow of highly-skilled university-degree talent fell by 58%, including a 61% decline in PhD, 50% in AI, and 42% in STEM talent. The retention ratio of 0.35, the lowest in CEE, means that about three times as many highly skilled workers leave Romania as arrive.
Within CEE, the Czech Republic was the only CEE country with a positive retention rate and the smallest decline in talent inflows. Both Hungary and Slovakia saw more people with university degrees leaving than arriving. Slovenia proved very successful at keeping PhD talent at home, even more successful than Germany. Talent inflow into Poland was high, although down 21%.
Meanwhile, the US extended its lead in highly skilled, STEM, and research talent, even against the backdrop of tighter immigration policy. But in AI, it is not. Whether this proves a temporary levelling or the start of a structural shift may become one of the defining questions of the next decade of the global technology race.
The latest edition of BCG’s proprietary tracker analyzed real-time mobility data on 221 million highly skilled professionals, defined as those holding at least a bachelor’s degree, across more than 200 destinations through the end of 2025.
(Photo source: Fizkes|Dreamstime.com)
Leave a Reply