The World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs report, released today, shows technology and the green transition are expected to change the nature of nearly a quarter of jobs (23 per cent) by 2027.
Macrotrends, including the green transition, Environment Social and Governance (ESG) standards and localisation of supply chains, are the leading drivers of job growth, with economic challenges including high inflation, slower economic growth and supply shortages posing the greatest threat.
The fastest growing jobs are AI and machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists, business intelligence analysts and information security specialists. The largest absolute growth is expected in education, agriculture and digital commerce.
Companies report that skills gaps and an inability to attract talent are the key barriers to transformation, showing a clear need for training and reskilling across industries. Six in 10 workers will require training before 2027, but only half of employees are seen to have access to adequate training opportunities today.
Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association, Ai Group — the Australian partner of the survey — said: “The insights from this report highlight the enormity of the skilling and re-skilling task ahead – for our economy and many others around the world.
“Advances in technology and the transition to a clean economy will cause great upheaval in jobs and skills over the next five years, but there is great scope for growth, too.
“This is a warning to us all — industry, government and the education and training system — to get the policy settings right to meet these challenges, or risk being left behind.”
Technology driving jobs churn
The data suggests technology adoption and digitisation will cause significant labour market churn — but result in net job creation.
Big data ranks at the top among technologies seen to create jobs, with 65 per cent of survey respondents expecting job growth in related roles. The employment of data analysts and scientists, big data specialists, AI machine learning specialists and cyber security professionals is expected to grow on average by 30 per cent by 2027. At the same time, the fastest declining roles are also being driven by technology and digitalisation, with clerical or secretarial roles including bank tellers, cashiers and data entry clerks expected to decline fastest.
Automation shifting from manual to cognitive tasks
