The Future Of Jobs Reported By World Economic Forum (WEF)

Overview

The Future of Jobs 4 report is published by the World Economic Forum (WEF). It tracks the jobs and skills of the future, tracking the pace of change and direction of travel. Millions of individuals have lost their livelihoods and millions more are at risk from the global recession.

Technology-driven job creation is still expected to outpace job destruction over the next five years. There is a renewed urgency to take proactive measures to ease the transition of displaced workers into more sustainable job opportunities. We have the means to reskill and upskill individuals in unprecedented numbers, to deploy precision safety nets.

The WEF Report Summary

The Future of Jobs Report 2020 aims to shed light on the future of jobs and skills in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns and the global recession of 2020 have created a highly uncertain outlook for the labor market.

The report also provides in-depth information for 15 industry sectors and 26 advanced countries. It aggregates the views of business leaders on the frontlines of decision-making with the latest data from business leaders and public sources to create a clearer picture of the current situation and the future outlook.

Automation, in tandem with the COVID-19, is creating a ‘double-disruption’ scenario for workers. Cloud computing, big data and e-commerce remain high priorities for business leaders.

By 2025, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal. The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce. The number of jobs destroyed will be surpassed by the number of ‘jobs of tomorrow’ created, job creation is slowing while job destruction accelerates.

Online learning and training are on the rise but look different for those in employment. Those in employment are placing a larger emphasis on personal development courses. The window of opportunity to reskill and upskilling workers has become shorter in the labor market.

Those who are unemployed have placed greater emphasis on learning digital skills such as data analysis, computer science and information technology. Employers expect to offer reskilling to just over 70% of their employees by 2025. Despite the current economic downturn, the majority of employers recognize the value of human capital investment.

Companies need to invest in better metrics of human and social capital through the adoption of environmental, social and governance metrics. The public sector needs to provide stronger support for reskilling and upskilling for at-risk or displaced workers.

Currently, only 21% of businesses report being able to make use of public funds to support their employees through reskilling. The public sector will need to create incentives for investments in the markets and jobs.

Governments should consider the long-term solutions to the labor market implications of the strong COVID crisis support they are providing to support wages and maintain jobs.