Geneva, 2 May 2023 (TDI): The World Economic Forum has released the Future of Jobs Report 2023. The report explores the future of jobs and skills over the next five years.
The fourth edition of the series analyzes the socio-economic and technological trends that will shape the future workplace.
Macrotrends have created divergent outcomes for labour markets globally in 2023.
According to the report, the low and lower-middle-income countries will continue to see higher unemployment than before. At the same time, tight labour markets are prevalent in high-income countries.
Also Read: Inequalities are impacting global jobs market: UN warns
Labour-market outcomes are also diverging on an individual level, as workers with only basic education and women face lower employment levels.
The report proposes that real wages are declining as a result of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis and changing worker expectations. Concerns about the quality of work are becoming more prominent issues globally.
The survey, namely Future of Jobs, covers a wide range of topics, geography, and sector.
It brings together the perspective of 803 companies that are collectively employing more than 11.3 million workers – across 27 industry clusters and 45 economies from all world regions.
The report proposes that technology adoption will remain a key driver of business transformation in the next five years.
Over 85% of organizations surveyed identify increased adoption of new and frontier technologies. They also identified broadening digital access to drive transformation.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) standards within the organizations will also have a significant impact.
The largest job creation and destruction effects come from environmental, economic, and technological trends.
The report finds that more than 75% of companies want to adopt AI, big data, and cloud computing in the next five years. The data also shows the impact of the digitalization of commerce and trade.
According to the survey, 86% of companies expect to incorporate AI, big data, and cloud computing into their operations in the next five years.
E-commerce and digital trade are expected to be adopted by 75% of businesses.
The second-ranked technology encompasses education and workforce technologies, with 81% of companies looking to adopt these technologies by 2027.
The majority of fastest declining roles are clerical or secretarial roles, with Bank Tellers and Related Clerks, Postal Service Clerks, Cashiers, and Ticket Clerks, and Data Entry Clerks expected to decline fastest.
Surveyed organizations predict 26 million fewer jobs by 2027 in Record-Keeping and Administrative roles, including Cashiers and Ticket Clerks; Data Entry, Accounting, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Clerks; and Administrative and Executive Secretaries, driven mainly by digitalization and automation.
The report entails a list of top priority skills for businesses. Analytical thinking is considered a core skill by more companies than any other skill and constitutes, on average, 9% of the core skills reported by companies.
Creative thinking ranks second. While three self-efficacy skills – resilience, flexibility, and agility; motivation and self-awareness; and curiosity and lifelong learning have made it to the priority list. The importance of workers’ ability to adapt to disrupted workplaces also has grabbed a place in the top priority list.
