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The past three years have been shaped by a challenging combination of health, economic and geopolitical volatility combined with growing social and environmental pressures. These accelerating transformations have and continue to reconfigure the world's labour markets and shape the demand for jobs and skills of tomorrow, driving divergent economic trajectories within and across countries, in developing and developed economies alike. The Fourth Industrial Revolution, changing worker and consumer expectations, and the urgent need for a green and energy transition are also reconfiguring the sectoral composition of the workforce and stimulating demand for new occupations and skills. Global supply chains must also quickly adapt to the challenges of increasing geopolitical volatility, economic uncertainty, rising inflation and increasing commodity prices.

Like previous editions, the 2023 report offers insights into these transformations and unpacks how businesses are expecting to navigate these labour-market changes from 2023 to 2027, leveraging a unique cross-sectoral and global survey of Chief Human Resources, Chief Learning Officers and Chief Executive Officers of leading global employers and their peers. This report is structured as follows: Chapter 1 reviews the global labour-market landscape at the beginning of 2023. Chapter 2 explores how key macrotrends are expected to transform this landscape over the 2023-2027 period. Chapters 3 and 4 then discuss the resulting global outlooks for jobs and skills over the 2023-2027 period. Chapter 5 reviews emerging workforce and talent strategies in response to these trends.

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This paper assesses the impact of technological change on Canada's labour market over the past 30 years and highlights its implications for the near future. The authors suggest that, if the past is any guide, a continuation of gradual changes can be expected in the demand for skills in the labour force. This is a natural market reaction to technological change. There is unlikely to be a drastic shift in employment due to automation in the near future, although some industries and types of occupations will be more disrupted than others. Here, public policy could both encourage automation and prepare the workforce for the transition.

Key findings are as follows: (1) it is very unlikely that employment in occupations highly susceptible to automation (35 per cent of Canada's employment) will be completely replaced by smart machines over the next few years; (2) Canadian employment is concentrated in industries that have a low risk of automation, with industries where less than a quarter of the jobs are susceptible to automation accounting for 27.5 per cent of total employment (4.9 million jobs) - industries where more than three-quarters of the jobs are at high risk of automation account for only 1.7 per cent of employment (310,000 jobs); this implies that Canada's diversified economy and labour force are well positioned to adapt to rapid technological change; (3) occupations high in abstract, complex-decision-making skills with a strong focus on creativity, critical thinking and interpersonal social skills have a relatively low risk of being automated - an increase in demand for these skills is likely over the near and medium term; and (4) as the rate of technological progress increases and digitization permeates different occupations and industries, technical job-specific skills might become obsolete relatively quickly - this indicates a need to increase opportunities for continuous education and lifelong learning, and educational institutions such as colleges, technical schools and apprenticeship programs likely will have an expanded role over the lifecycle of employment as people learn to adapt to changing conditions.

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Achieving a just digital and green transition is at the heart of the European Union's policy ambitions. The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital transformation, abruptly transforming the way we live, work and learn. The digital transition is all around us, but not all workers benefit equally. Many are not exposed to digital technology or are employed in low-skilled, routine and non-complex jobs. This report presents evidence from Cedefop's second European skills and jobs survey (ESJS2), covering over 46,000 adult workers in 29 European countries.

It illustrates the impact of the pandemic, maps the use of different types of digital technology and reflects on their implications for changing tasks, skill needs and skill mismatches. The wealth of new evidence supports the EU's digital and skills agendas and their ambitious targets. In this report Cedefop makes the case for placing worker wellbeing and quality jobs at the core of Europe's digital transition.

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Before the onset of the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic, rapid advances in automation and artificial intelligence were often featured in discussions around the changing nature of work. The concern, which is still present today, centred around the possibility that machines and robots could perform certain tasks more efficiently than humans, possibly resulting in rapid job transformation and potential disruptions. At the same time, increased globalization and industrial shifts may have further altered the type of tasks performed in the workplace. Previous work found that while the workforce was moving away from jobs involving routine, manual tasks and moving toward those involving non-routine, cognitive tasks, changes were moderate and very steady between 1987 and 2018 (Frank et al. 2021). This pace could have allowed workers time to adjust to the slowly evolving realities of the changing workplace, either by retraining or through demographic forces (i.e., attrition of routine, manual jobs as older workers retire).

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns may have accelerated these trends for several reasons. On the supply (worker) side, the lockdowns created many economic and health concerns for affected workers, primarily those who had close contact with the public or co-workers. This may have encouraged some workers to seek employment with less human contact. On the demand (employer) side, some businesses may have sought to make their production and delivery processes more resilient to future lockdowns by investing in automation technology, while entire industries may have expanded or contracted to match new market conditions.

This article finds that some of the long-term trends in the nature of work present before the onset of the pandemic not only continued during the pandemic, but they also accelerated. In particular, the increase in the share of employed individuals in managerial, professional and technical occupations (non-routine, cognitive tasks) registered during the pandemic was higher than in the previous three decades. While the increases in non-routine, cognitive jobs registered during the pandemic were similar for men and women, the corresponding declines in other types of jobs were not.

For men, most of the increase in managerial, professional and technical occupations was accompanied by important declines in production, craft, repair and operative occupations (routine, manual tasks) and service occupations (non-routine, manual tasks). For women, most of the increase in managerial, professional and technical occupations was accompanied by a decline in service occupations. For men and women, the decline in service occupations was particularly notable, especially given that the share of service jobs actually increased moderately during the three decades prior to the pandemic. For men, the decline in production, craft, repair and operative occupations represented a modest acceleration of the long-term gradual decline established before the pandemic.

Finally, the increase in managerial, professional and technical occupations and the decline in service occupations were considerably more pronounced among younger workers (aged 25 to 34 years) compared with older workers (aged 45 to 54 years). Changing occupations may have required training in certain cases, and government supports were available to help displaced workers pursue this route if they chose.

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This report was compiled under the ILO's research project, Apprenticeship Development for Universal Lifelong Learning and Training (ADULT), funded by the Government of Flanders. The project aims to explore how apprenticeship systems are being modernised and transformed to promote and enable lifelong learning and decent work for youth, adults, and older workers (both employed and unemployed). This report explores how apprenticeships can enable people to acquire new skills and update existing skills throughout their working lives to keep pace with the fast-changing labour market demand. The majority of the chapters are based on six individual thematic reports, with three additional themes and one policy chapter completing the extensive overview that this report provides. In addition to the six chapters which focus on the thematic reports, the main report features three independently compiled chapters on the green transition, informal apprenticeships, and flexibility and inclusion.

Chapters 2 and 10 explore the impact of digital technologies on jobs and investigate how digital technology can be used to improve the effectiveness, inclusiveness and efficiency of apprenticeships. They also highlight the ongoing and emerging innovative practices in the use of digital and educational technology in apprenticeship systems. Chapter 3 outlines why apprenticeships have a central enabling role to play in delivering the skills needed to achieve the green transition due to their unique position, straddling the worlds of business, education and training. Chapter 4 makes the case for the importance of including informal apprenticeships in skills development policies. Many apprentices in low- and middle-income countries acquire their skills in the informal economy and their circumstances should be analysed and considered, with the aim of enabling them to transition into the formal economy in the long term. Another topic that the report outlines, in Chapter 5, is the role of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in apprenticeships. The commitment of SMEs to apprenticeship is discussed as a potential target for policies that aim to support the development and performance of SMEs. The chapter showcases how the enhancement of enterprises' participation in apprenticeship can benefit learners, the state, employers and employees.

Chapter 6 explores reasons why apprenticeships are sometimes regarded as less popular pathways to kickstart careers and presents notable initiatives undertaken by various countries to improve the attractiveness of apprenticeships. These include structural changes and enhancements to apprenticeship programmes, as well as better promotion of apprenticeships to potential apprentices and those who advise them. Chapter 7 of the report explores initiatives from countries around the world to strengthen work-based learning (WBL) in VET institutions, as well as the role of local industry and social partners. It also discusses the various innovative policy options which can be introduced to support WBL in school-based VET. Chapter 8 looks at apprenticeships for the reskilling and upskilling of adults, pointing out the fact that quality frameworks and standards for apprenticeships should include adult learning and disadvantaged learners. Lifelong learning can be ensured when national governments are encouraged to consider apprenticeship for adults as an option for upskilling and reskilling in their national strategies. Chapter 9 on flexibility and inclusion investigates how to distribute the benefits of economic activity in a more equitable and fair manner, which will be key to meeting the challenges of modern production and service delivery. Finally, Chapter 11 concludes the overview and analyses of the different topics with a chapter on policy messages for the future of apprenticeships, focusing on topics such as the design process, stakeholder engagement, upskilling of trainers, gender and inclusivity, employer's incentives and digital technologies.

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The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) commissioned Learning and Work Institute (L&W) to explore the major drivers of changes in the world of work and analyse the equality and human rights implications for groups with different protected characteristics in Britain. As part of this research, the impact of three long-term British labour market trends on people with certain protected characteristics have been examined. These are: the increase in flexible ways of working (whether by time or place), the growth of self-employment and the gig economy, and the increasing use of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). In this report, long-term employment trends are defined as phenomena that have been around for more than a decade and have had a significant impact on how work is shaped. This research focused on the protected characteristics of age, disability, race, and sex due to limited data. There are challenges in measuring and interpreting the impacts of many of these long-term trends, so it is important to be cautious in drawing conclusions.

Work is becoming more flexible, digital and automated but these changes in the labour market do not affect everyone equally. Those who face more barriers to work can be disproportionately adversely affected by these trends. Conversely, these changes can also widen opportunities. We need to better understand what the data and evidence tell us about the impact on people with certain protected characteristics. But we must also acknowledge that these outcomes are not inevitable. Many of the changes we see in the British labour market can help to improve the lives of people who have been traditionally excluded. While the focus of this research is on the implications for groups with different protected characteristics, human rights principles, such as equality of participation, non-discrimination and privacy rights, also apply. Human rights considerations need to be central to any response to these findings on behalf of governments.

This report is based on: a detailed literature review, an analysis of Labour Force Survey data, and interviews and workshops with experts. Since the Labour Force Survey does not allow us to measure the total number of workers in the gig economy, throughout the research we have measured the change in the number of workers on zero-hours contracts. Although this only provides a partial picture, it is one of the measurable indicators of the gig economy.

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This policy brief presents first findings from [European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training] Cedefop's second European skills and jobs survey (ESJS2). The ESJS2 surveyed representative samples of EU+ adult workers on job-skill requirements, digitalisation at work, skill mismatches and workplace learning. It provides up-to-date evidence on how digitalisation accelerated in EU labour markets during the [COVID-19] coronavirus pandemic. This brief identifies worker groups affected by task automation and digital skill gaps in need of targeted upskilling or reskilling, and makes the case for a human-centred and empowering approach to adopting digital technology.

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In our fourth annual survey, 6,607 professionals (1,675 learning and development (L&D) professionals, 2,000 workplace learners and 2,932 managers) spanning 18 countries revealed their priorities, challenges, and inspirations. In this report, we will explore the answers to four questions: How are learning leaders resourced to scale learning and engage executives to create a culture of learning? How do L&D pros measure the impact of learning and define learner engagement? What can talent developers do to transform managers into learning champions? How are your peers upskilling and reskilling employees to prepare for what's ahead?

Key findings include: (1) L&D budgets continue to grow and shift to online learning; (2) L&D professionals spend most of their time building and sourcing content; (3) L&D has executive buy-in, but championship is the next big opportunity; (4) L&D professionals globally indicated their most important area of strategic focus for 2020 was evaluating the effectiveness of learning programs; (5) Driving higher learner engagement is a consistent challenge for all talent developers, but - as with measuring impact - the industry has yet to converge on a true north metric for engagement. Surprisingly, nearly a quarter of L&D professionals globally don't measure learner engagement; (6) 49 per cent of surveyed talent developers globally said that getting managers to make learning a priority for their teams was their biggest challenge this year; and (7) talent developers are laser focused on building soft skills - interpersonal skills that are foundational to every employee's success, regardless of their functional role or how the technology landscape evolves.

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Skills gaps and labour shortages have been important issues for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for many years. Technological, economic, and environmental transformation, including the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic, has only exacerbated those concerns. Entrepreneurs, policymakers, business leaders, and job seekers are coping with those changes and the challenges of planning for the future under conditions of uncertainty and limited resources. What is the future of work and what skills will SMEs and workers need to thrive in the future?

This report offers rich insights into the skill needs of SMEs and ways to support them in providing training to 'upskill' and 're-skill' their employees to succeed in the future. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of Quebec's and Canada's economy. However, Quebec and Canadian organizations have long lamented the shortage of labour and skills and the lack of access to skilled workers as one of the most critical issues impacting their competitiveness and ability to grow.

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This report sets out to explore how [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 might interact with technology and how this could fundamentally reshape the labour market. COVID-19 looks likely to create 'a tsunami of job losses'. There are also signs the pandemic could rapidly accelerate the pace of technological change. We set out a risk register that combines an analysis of the impacts of the pandemic on different sectors, with measures of automation risk and their growth or decline over the last decade. Our risk register does not aim to put a precise figure on the number of jobs that will be lost due to either robots or the pandemic. Rather, our aim is to help key decision makers – whether the Chancellor of the Exchequer or a careers advisor in an [further education] FE college – identify what jobs are vulnerable or resilient to these two different forces. And thus, what different types of policy support we need to make sure all workers gain or retain access to good work, during the pandemic and beyond.

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