Despite some differing numbers, two widely regarded and independent reports on the U.S. training market conclude that 30 percent of employee learning last year occurred online. The question of whether workplace training improves worker performance remains unanswered, however.

After years of budgeting money for software-based training modules, integrated learning systems and thick wads of online content, corporations are beginning to see those investments pay off in the form of increased use of e-learning.

Yet as more employees use online tools, corporations also are seeing their costs of delivery creep up slightly.

Those are among the key findings to emerge from a pair of annual reports that gauge the U.S. workplace training market. The research is from the American Society for Training & Development and private firm Bersin & Associates. The organizations, although not affiliated, each released data in January 2008.

Comparing the two reports can be tricky. In its 2007 State of the Industry Report, Arlington, Virginia-based ASTD estimates that U.S. organizations spent nearly $130 billion on employee learning and development in 2006. That figure includes direct expenditures such as salaries for learning professionals, administration, outsourcing activities and other non-salary delivery costs. The estimate is based on the average U.S. organization’s per-employee training expenditure-$1,083-multiplied by the number of full-time workers in the U.S., which ASTD puts at 119.7 million.

The report shows steady momentum for spending on training. In its 2006 report, ASTD estimated corporate learning expenditures in the U.S. at $109 billion.

Meanwhile, the Corporate Learning Factbook 2008, produced by Oakland, California-based Bersin & Associates, contains data on 2007 corporate training spending, which it says approached $58.5 billion. To arrive at that estimate, Bersin says it weights its data to more accurately reflect the makeup of businesses in the U.S., which tend to be small and medium-size, while most of its survey respondents were big companies. That weighting could account for the spending estimate being lower than that of the ASTD report, says company president Josh Bersin. The Bersin survey excludes government organizations, while the ASTD report includes responses from public-sector organizations.

Despite the variance, however, the reports corroborate one another on at least one important finding: One of every three hours of training is now being delivered via some form of technology, and that ratio is expected to climb in coming years.

ASTD says e-learning is becoming more prominent for several reasons. Among them: higher fees being charged for instructor-led classes, coupled with organizations’ growing reluctance to have employees miss work to attend training sessions.

Shifting demographics probably are also aiding the momentum. As older, book-bound workers edge closer to retirement, a younger and more tech-savvy cadre of people is filtering into the nation’s workforce, bringing an eagerness to use online tools to aid professional growth and development.

Technology-based methods accounted for 30 percent of all learning hours provided, a significant jump from 11.5 percent in 2001, according to ASTD. Even though e-learning methods aren’t new, only within the past several years have they moved into the mainstream, according to ASTD research analyst Andrew Paradise, who wrote the report.