The Future of Jobs

The phrase “Future of Jobs” suggests impending disruption to our work-lives, and the World Economic Forum reports that it’s true, that this future has already arrived for a large majority of the white-collar workforce. 84% of employers are set to rapidly digitalize work processes, including a significant expansion of remote work—with the potential to move 44% of their workforce to operate remotely.

By Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson

Ellen Koskinen-Dodgson is President and Managing Partner of TMC IT and Telecom Consulting Inc. She is an IT and Telecommunications Management Consultant, electrical engineer, author, speaker, media resource and Expert Witness.

WEF Expertise

The World Economic Forum is an international, not-for-profit foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The Forum engages senior political, business, cultural, and other leaders of society to provide input on important global topics such as the future of jobs and global risks.

Fewer Jobs

We’ll see employment losses with 41% of businesses in the survey saying that they would expand their use of contractors for specialized tasks rather than training their employees how to do the work.

Workflow automation will reduce their workforce in 43% of respondents. Repetitive, simple tasks are easy to automate but even work that is considered skilled, such as law, will see job automation.

The pandemic has accelerated their time-scales. By 2025, time spent on current work tasks will be shared 50/50 between humans and machines.

Even though their forecast says that the number of new jobs of tomorrow will be greater than the number of lost old- school jobs – a potential of 97 million new jobs vs. 85 million jobs replaced by automation – there will be more losses than gains in the short term.

Skills Gap

The current skills gap will widen. Increased demand for tech skills include digital transformation, big data analysis, e-commerce, encryption and security, AI, and nonhuman robotics. The top business skills will be critical thinking and analysis, problem solving and self- management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance, and mental flexibility.

Companies estimate that reskilling of up to six months duration will be required for 40% of their workforce over the next few years. Most business leaders (94%) expect employees to pick up new skills on the job. This is a large increase from the 64% percent expectation in the 2018 study.

More Inequality

Crises and times of dramatic change often increase inequality – the gap between skilled workers and low wage workers, the young, and women. Currently the expected impact is forecast to be much worse than that of the financial crisis of 2008. Government programs will be required if this gap is to be reduced.

Isolation

Economic upheaval and the shift to remote work increases concerns about productivity and well-being. About one- third of all employers expect to take steps to create an improved sense of community, connection and belonging among employees through the use of digital tools.

Looking Inwards

As an employer or manager, there are two important issues. You need to plan for the growing skills gap as well as the expected psychological impacts of remote work and AI encroachment.

If you’d like to comment on this article or explore these ideas further, contact me at ellen.