The global employment market is in flux, with baby boomers staying in the workforce longer and college graduates struggling to get their first jobs because businesses are hesitant to ramp up hiring. Recently, a lot of emphasis has been placed on addressing the requirements of older workers and ensuring the right graduates are recruited. However, the demographic at most risk of being overlooked by employers may be those in mid-career.

The value mid-career workers bring — particularly in terms of the experience, maturity and productivity they offer — is a real asset to any organization and should not be lightly dismissed.

Lumesse — formerly StepStone Solutions, a provider of global talent management and talent acquisition products — commissioned a global survey spanning almost 4,000 employees across 14 countries to assess the different attitudes toward their work and employers. The results identified stark contrasts in career motivators such as salary, training, workplace happiness and workplace loyalty between genders, ages and regions.

Salary. The survey indicated that salary disparities still exist between genders and ages. Globally more men (10 percent) than women (8 percent) reported a pay increase of more than 20 percent since 2008. Meanwhile, mid-career employees were least likely to have had a pay raise. This data display the mood of the global workplace as many feeling unrewarded in terms of skills and application, but also in the more tangible form of pay, with 29 percent globally reporting their salary hasn’t risen since 2008.

Training. Mid-career employees were also dissatisfied with the amount of training offered. According to the study, 39 percent of employees between ages 18 and 25 as well as 35 percent of employees over 60 believe they are receiving the right training. However, those employees between ages 41 and 51 most strongly believed their company doesn’t bother to train its people and were least likely to agree they got good training when they needed it.

Regionally, Hong Kong employees received the least training, with only 17 percent of employees believing they would receive training to increase their skills. Conversely, in the rest of China 37 percent of employees believed they were trained proficiently. In the U.S., 34 percent of employees received thorough training. Within Europe, employees in the Netherlands and Belgium benefited the most, with 36 percent receiving comprehensive training, while Sweden was the most poorly trained (at 20 percent).