Context:
The World Economic Forum recently released its bi-annual Future of Jobs Report 2025 edition.
About the Future of Jobs Report 2025
- Aim:
- Highlights evolving technological, societal, and economic trends to understand occupational disruption.
- Identifies opportunities for workers to transition to the jobs of the future.
- Future of Jobs Dataset:
- Derived from a survey of 1,000 leading global employers.
- Covers 22 industry clusters and 55 economies.
Key Highlights:
- Job Creation and Displacement:
- 170 million new jobs by 2030.
- 92 million jobs projected to be displaced.
- Job disruption equates to 22% of jobs by 2030.
- Drivers Shaping the Labour Market by 2030:
- Technological Change: AI and information processing technologies (81%), Robots and autonomous systems (58%), Energy generation and storage technologies (41%).
- Geoeconomic Fragmentation: Increasing protectionist measures pose a medium-term risk to global economic growth.
- Economic Uncertainty: Easing inflation and looser monetary policy offer some optimism, but slow growth and political volatility remain risks.
- Demographic Shifts: 40% of employers impacted by aging and declining working-age populations, 25% by growing working-age populations.
- Green Transition: Significant transformation in industries like Automotive, Aerospace, Mining, and Metals due to decarbonisation efforts.
Trends in Skill Sets:
- Rising Skills (2025-2030):
- AI, big data, cybersecurity, creative thinking, multilingualism.
- Creative thinking saw a net increase of 66%.
- Skills like “resilience, flexibility, and agility” also increased.
- Least Growth:
- Skills of ‘dependability and attention to detail’ grew by 12%.
- Negative Growth:
- Skills like ‘Reading, writing and mathematics’ declined by 4%.
- ‘Manual dexterity, endurance and precision’ declined by -24%.
Fastest Growing Jobs:
- Percentage Terms:
- AI and machine learning, software and application developers, FinTech engineers, technology and specialist roles.
- Absolute Volume Terms:
- Frontline roles like farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers, salesperson, food processing workers.
- Care Economy:
- Jobs like nursing professionals, social workers, education roles like secondary school teachers.
- Essential Sectors:
- Growth driven by demographic trends in sectors like care and education for the highest job growth by 2030.
Fastest Declining Jobs:
- Top Declining Jobs:
- Postal service clerks, bank tellers, data entry clerks, cashiers, ticket clerks, graphic designers.
- Other Declining Roles:
- Printing and trades workers, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll clerks, material-recording and stock-keeping clerks, transportation attendants, conductors, legal secretaries, telemarketers.
Focus on India:
- Drivers:
- Increased digital access, geopolitical tensions, climate-mitigation efforts.
- Investments:
- Increased investment in AI, robotics, autonomous systems, and energy technologies.
- Technology Adoption:
- Expected to outpace global adoption in technologies like semiconductors (35%) and quantum and encryption technologies (21%).
- Fastest Growing Job Roles:
- Big data specialists, AI and machine learning specialists, security management specialists.
World Economic Forum (WEF):
- Focus: An international not-for-profit organization promoting cooperation between the public and private sectors.
- Establishment:
- Established in 1971 as the European Management Forum by German economist Klaus Schwab.
- Renamed to the World Economic Forum in 1987.
- Headquarters: Located in Cologny-Geneva.
- Mandate: Fosters a spirit of collaborative entrepreneurship to address global issues and shape governmental, industry, and social agendas.
- Funding: Funded by member companies that are global enterprises with more than five billion dollars in turnover.
- Major Reports:
- The Global Competitiveness Report
- The Global Gender Gap Report
- The Global Risk Report
- The Energy Transition Index
- The Global Travel and Tourism Report
Source: HT
Previous Year Question
Which one of the following is not a sub-index of the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business Index’?
[UPSC Civil Service Exam – 2019 Prelims]
(a) Maintenance of law and order
(b) Paying taxes
(c) Registering property
(d) Dealing with construction permits
Answer: (a)