The Covid-19 pandemic-induced lockdowns and related global recession of 2020 have created a highly uncertain outlook for the labour market and accelerated the arrival of the future of work, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF’s Future of Jobs Report 2020 includes in-depth information for 15 industry sectors and 26 advanced and emerging countries. It also aggregates the views of business leaders – chief executives, chief strategy officers and chief human resources officers – on the frontlines of decision-making regarding human capital with the latest data from public and private sources to create a clearer picture of both the current situation and the future outlook for jobs and skills.
The report’s key findings are:
- The pace of technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas
- Automation, in tandem with the Covid-19 recession, is creating a ‘double-disruption’ scenario for workers
- Although the number of jobs destroyed will be surpassed by the number of ‘jobs of tomorrow’ created, in contrast to previous years, job creation is slowing while job destruction accelerates
- Skills gaps continue to be high as in-demand skills across jobs change in the next five years
- The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce
- Inequality is likely to be exacerbated by the dual impact of technology and the pandemic recession
- Online learning and training is on the rise but looks different for those in employment
- The window of opportunity to reskill and upskill workers has become shorter in the newly constrained labour market
- Despite the current economic downturn, the large majority of employers recognise the value of human capital investment
- Companies need to invest in better metrics of human and social capital through adoption of environmental, social and governance metrics and matched with renewed measures of human capital accounting
- The public sector needs to provide stronger support for reskilling and upskilling for at-risk or displaced workers.
Coaching will have a role to play in offering emotional support and helping leaders prioritise how to reskill and support workers. Commenting on the report, Sarah Danzl, head of global communications at lifelong learning platform, Degreed, said, “For business leaders, their top priority should be to ensure their workers are able to adapt to a new set-up, with the right skills, and emotional support for these significant changes.”
There has been a four-fold increase in the numbers of individuals seeking out opportunities for learning online through their own initiative, a five-fold increase in employer provision of online learning opportunities to their workers and a nine-fold enrolment increase for learners accessing online learning through government programmes. Those in employment are placing larger emphasis on personal development courses, which have seen 88% growth among that population.
The top skills and skill groups which employers see as rising in prominence in the lead-up to 2025 include groups such as critical thinking and analysis, problem-solving, and skills in self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility.
By 2025, the time spent on current tasks at work by humans and machines will be equal. By 2025, 85 million jobs may be displaced by a shift in the division of labour between humans and machines, while 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms.