560 000. That’s how many professionals the global private markets industry employs today. In 2005, it was 41,000. And more than half has retired.

Almost the entire workforce arrived in under 20 years, while assets under management grew twelvefold.
Our study “The Evolution of Private Markets Workforce” tells the story of this remarkable transformation.

The central 2026 estimate is 560,000 global fund-manager employees (PE+RE+Infra, ex-private credit), with a range of 480,000 to 640,000. Average workforce age falls from 50 in 2005 to about 43 by 2026 as large junior cohorts dilute what was once a partner-heavy industry. Around 63.62% of the 2026 workforce has under five years of private-markets experience, and just 0.58% has twenty or more. Only 0.58% of today’s workforce, in other words, were already in the private markets back in 2005. Private markets grew roughly twelve-fold between 2005 and 2026, from approximately US$1.13 trillion (PE+RE+Infra, ex-private credit) to an estimated US$14 trillion.

The Evolution of Private Markets Workforce DOWLOAD

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