The future of jobs report 2020

This report maps the jobs and skills of the future, tracking the pace of change. The [Coronavirus Disease 2019] 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. The report aims to shed light on: (1) the pandemic-related disruptions thus far in 2020, contextualized within a longer history of economic cycles, and (2) the expected outlook for technology adoption, jobs and skills in the next five years. Despite the currently high degree of uncertainty, the report uses a unique combination of qualitative and quantitative intelligence to expand the knowledge base about the future of jobs and skills. It aggregates the views of business leaders-chief executives, chief strategy officers and chief human resources officers on the front lines 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 also provides in-depth information for 15 industry sectors and 26 advanced and emerging countries.

The report's key findings include: (1) The pace of technology adoption is expected to remain unabated and may accelerate in some areas - the adoption of cloud computing, big data and e-commerce remain high priorities for business leaders, and there has also been a significant rise in interest for encryption, non-humanoid robots and artificial intelligence; (2) Automation, in tandem with the COVID-19 recession, is creating a 'double-disruption' scenario for workers. In addition to the current disruption from the pandemic-induced lockdowns and economic contraction, technological adoption by companies will transform tasks, jobs and skills by 2025; (3) 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; (4) Skills gaps continue to be high as in-demand skills across jobs change in the next five years - the top skills and skill groups which employers see as rising in prominence include critical thinking and analysis as well as problem-solving, and skills in self-management such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility; (5) The future of work has already arrived for a large majority of the online white-collar workforce; (6) In the absence of proactive efforts, inequality is likely to be exacerbated by the dual impact of technology and the pandemic recession - jobs held by lower wage workers, women and younger workers were more deeply impacted in the first phase of the economic contraction; (7) Online learning and training is on the rise but looks different for those in employment and those who are unemployed; (8) The window of opportunity to reskill and upskill workers has become shorter in the newly constrained labour market; (9) Despite the current economic downturn, the large majority of employers recognize the value of human capital investment; (10) Companies need to invest in better metrics of human and social capital through adoption of environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics and matched with renewed measures of human capital accounting; (11) The public sector needs to provide stronger support for reskilling and upskilling for at-risk or displaced workers.

Edited excerpts from publisher's website. Show less