Economic, health and geopolitical trends have created divergent outcomes for labour markets globally in 2023.
The fourth edition of the Survey has the widest coverage thus far by topic, geography and sector.
Technology adoption will remain a key driver of business transformation in the next five years.
The largest job creation and destruction effects come from environmental, technology and economic trends.
Within technology adoption, big data, cloud computing and AI feature highly on likelihood of adoption.
The impact of most technologies on jobs is expected to be a net positive over the next five years.
Employers anticipate a structural labour market churn of 23% of jobs in the next five years.
The human-machine frontier has shifted, with businesses introducing automation into their operations at a slower pace than previously anticipated.
But while expectations of the displacement of physical and manual work by machines has decreased, reasoning, communicating and coordinating – all traits with a comparative advantage for humans – are expected to be more automatable in the future.
The combination of macrotrends and technology adoption will drive specific areas of job growth and decline:
The fastest-growing roles relative to their size today are driven by technology, digitalization and sustainability.
The fastest-declining roles relative to their size today are driven by technology and digitalization.
Large-scale job growth is expected in education, agriculture and digital commerce and trade.
The largest losses are expected in administrative roles and in traditional security, factory and commerce roles.
Analytical thinking and creative thinking remain the most important skills for workers in 2023.
Employers estimate that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years.
Six in 10 workers will require training before 2027, but only half of workers are seen to have access to adequate training opportunities today.
The skills that companies report to be increasing in importance the fastest are not always reflected in corporate upskilling strategies.
Respondents express confidence in developing their existing workforce, however, they are less optimistic regarding the outlook for talent availability in the next five years.
Surveyed companies report that investing in learning and on-the-job training and automating processes are the most common workforce strategies which will be adopted to deliver their organizations’ business goals.
A majority of companies will prioritize women (79%), youth under 25 (68%) and those with disabilities (51%) as part of their DEI programmes.
Forty-five percent of businesses see funding for skills training as an effective intervention available to governments seeking to connect talent to employment.
