Global hiring is shifting from a short-term response to talent shortages into a long-term growth strategy. Research from Deel’s 2026 State of Global Hiring Report shows that well-funded startups are expanding overseas not just to reduce costs, but to access specialised talent and new markets.
For years, companies looked abroad mainly to lower labour costs. Hiring teams in emerging markets helped fill skills gaps while keeping payrolls down.
That pattern is starting to change. Increasingly, well-funded startups (that have raised at least $100m, or about £79m) are building international teams to tap into specialised skills and support expansion into new regions.
The shift is reflected in where companies are hiring. The UK has emerged as the most popular destination for this type of hiring. It accounted for 12.2% of the over 1,400 new cross-border employees hired last year by nearly 100 leading startups, 55% of them based in the US.
Canada followed closely with 11.9% of hires, while Germany accounted for 8.8% and Australia 5.8%.
While well-funded startups increasingly hire in high-income markets, the broader global hiring picture is more mixed. While small and medium-sized businesses are more likely than top-funded startups to recruit employees in emerging markets such as the Philippines, Mexico, Colombia, and India, they still often recruit in more expensive markets like the US and UK. The contrast highlights how hiring strategies diverge depending on company size and growth stage.
The pattern suggests global hiring is evolving from a cost-saving tactic into a broader strategy for building international teams and accessing scarce talent.
Top-funded startups buck traditional hiring trends
The type of talent top-funded startups recruit also differs from that sought by the average SMB. Rather than focusing on customer service representatives and sales managers, top-funded startups are much more likely than SMBs to hire software developers, with a 13.6 percentage point difference between the two. Next on the list are tech sales roles (3.7% gap), sales engineers (1.8%), and AI engineers (1.3%).
As Lauren Thomas, economist at the global HR solution provider, explains: “What this indicates is that the best companies aren’t hiring for lower salaries or taxes but for geographic proximity, language, and top available talent.”
The best companies aren’t hiring for lower salaries or taxes but for geographic proximity, language, and top available talent.
This talent falls into two main “buckets”. The first is scarce, high-value, hard-to-hire and hard-to-fill roles, which include both AI and sales engineers.
The second is foundational posts, such as tech sales and marketing. These tend to be the first hires when organisations, whether startups or enterprises, decide to expand abroad. In fact, Thomas says, seven of the 10 most in-demand roles in this context are sales, marketing, or client relations positions.
This is because local expertise and an understanding of local market requirements matter here. But such requirements are “almost impossible” for leaders based elsewhere to grasp without an intimate knowledge of the country, Thomas points out. Local market knowledge remains difficult to replicate from abroad.
“This means it’s where humans are vital as there’s a need for personal knowledge,” Thomas says. “But your competition is going to be looking in the same places too, which will be reflected in terms of compensation.”
The fastest-growing cross-border roles
The fastest growing cross-border role was AI trainers. The number of general AI trainer roles hired from abroad, such as data and image labellers, increased by 283% last year. But the number of specialist AI trainers, who are subject matter experts in areas like medicine, economics or law, also saw “explosive growth”, Thomas says.
Specialist AI trainer roles barely existed two years ago, underscoring how quickly AI is creating new categories of work. There are currently more than 70,000 such trainers around the world working for more than 600 different organisations. Many of them are employed on a part-time or flexible basis.
About 58% are based in the US. Next on the list are India (7.2%) and the Philippines (4.6%) due to the high levels of English-language proficiency employees have in both countries.
Thomas says: “The US is by far the largest market because so many people living in the country work for US-based AI labs or are placed there through platforms. This is because AI labs often need to verify outputs with native speakers or local subject matter experts.”
As AI systems start appearing in more languages and specialised domains though, demand for trainers elsewhere is expected to grow too.
An important factor to note here though is that payment for such roles is bifurcated and somewhat higher than might be expected. At the lowest end, general AI trainers (30.3%) earn between $15 to $20 (about £12 to £16) per hour. But those with more specialised knowledge can earn between $50 to $75 (about £40 to £55) per hour (19.1%) with some (6.1%) even taking home more than $100 (about £79) per hour at the top end.
“Compensation has to align with what the outside market is paying,” Thomas explains. “Professions like doctors and economists are well paid, so they wouldn’t be prepared to take a pay cut to do this.”
On the downside, the situation is reinforcing an already existing gender bias. In the US, for instance, male specialised AI trainers earn a median of $50 (about £40) per hour compared with $30 (about £24) per hour among their female counterparts. The gap, which is mirrored in other high-income countries too, reflects the fact that traditionally male-dominated professions tend to pay better.
Currency-hopping leaps
Another compensation trend highlighted in the report is “currency hopping”, where contractors choose to be paid in stronger or more stable currencies to protect their earnings.
In countries experiencing high inflation or currency volatility, many cross-border contractors are opting to receive payments in US dollars rather than their local currency. The shift helps protect purchasing power while ensuring workers are paid at globally competitive rates. The trend is particularly pronounced in countries such as Argentina and Bolivia.
In Europe, contractors often move between the euro and local currencies, even in non-eurozone countries, with the US dollar sometimes used as a hedge.
Stablecoins are also gaining traction as an alternative payment option. In markets with unstable currencies or high cross-border payment costs, they can provide a cheaper alternative to traditional remittances. Argentina currently leads stablecoin adoption among contractors, followed by Cameroon, South Korea and Turkey.
“Employers increasingly need to think about how they can offer workers multiple payment options, especially in areas where currencies are volatile, as being able to buy more with your money is a huge draw for talent,” Thomas says.
Together, these trends suggest global hiring is no longer a short-term response to labour shortages but a core element of how companies build teams and expand internationally.
As Thomas concludes: “If employers are serious about global expansion, it is imperative they now treat global hiring as integral to their long-term strategy.”
Learn more in Deel’s 2026 State of Global Hiring Report.
Global hiring is shifting from a short-term response to talent shortages into a long-term growth strategy. Research from Deel’s 2026 State of Global Hiring Report shows that well-funded startups are expanding overseas not just to reduce costs, but to access specialised talent and new markets.
For years, companies looked abroad mainly to lower labour costs. Hiring teams in emerging markets helped fill skills gaps while keeping payrolls down.
That pattern is starting to change. Increasingly, well-funded startups (that have raised at least $100m, or about £79m) are building international teams to tap into specialised skills and support expansion into new regions.
