According to WTW’s latest Salary Budget Planning Survey, U.S. salary budgets for 2026 are projected to hold steady at 3.4%, matching the actual increase recorded in 2025. The survey—fielded between September and November 2025—garnered 36,960 responses across 156 countries, including 1,876 U.S. organizations. Employers cite greater clarity on inflation expectations and disciplined prioritization as reasons for stability: 62% of respondents have left their projected pay budgets unchanged, while just 6% plan to raise budgets and 21% expect cuts. Of those adjusting budgets, 36% point to cost‐management concerns, another 36% to recession fears or weak financial results, 32% to a tight labor market and 25% to lingering inflationary pressures. Voluntary turnover has eased to 10.1% over the past year, prompting companies to allocate limited budget resources toward critical talent retention and pay‐compression remedies. Other retention tactics include improving employee experience (50% of organizations), expanding training opportunities (43%), enhancing health and wellness benefits (42%), offering greater workplace flexibility (35%) and updating compensation programs (32%). Heather Ryan, WTW’s Head of Rewards Data Intelligence Product, notes that organizations are shifting budget allocations toward high‐impact contributors and skill‐builders, while Lori Wisper, managing director of Work & Rewards, forecasts a sustained period of salary increase stability reflecting the current labor‐market equilibrium.

Willis, a WTW business, and Oxford Analytica have jointly released “Managing the New Economic Risks in the Defense Sector,” a report based on in-depth interviews with senior defense executives. The study identifies five critical economic risks: balancing scale with sovereignty, escalating tariff disputes, dependence on Chinese materials and components, phantom spending where budget pledges fail to materialize and challenges in reindustrializing Western defense supply chains. The report warns that debt‐to‐GDP ratios exceeding 100% across Europe, North America and Japan could trigger fiscal pressures that undermine long-term defense commitments through potential social backlash against spending or de facto soft defaults. Sam Wilkin, Director of Political Risk Analytics at Willis, emphasizes that the resurgence of state-sponsored conflicts and expanded defense procurement have reshaped supply-chain dynamics and will require defense contractors to adopt new strategic and operational approaches.