Future of Jobs Report 2025

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Technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts and the green transition – individually and in combination – are among the major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030. The Future of Jobs Report 2025 brings together the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers—collectively representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world—to examine how these macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe. –Broadening digital access is expected to be the most transformative trend – both across technology-related trends and overall – with 60% of employers expecting it to transform their business by 2030. Advancements in technologies, particularly AI and information processing (86%); robotics and automation (58%); and energy generation, storage and distribution (41%), are also expected to be transformative. These trends are expected to have a divergent effect on jobs, driving both the fastest-growing and fastest-declining roles, and fueling demand for technology-related skills, including AI and big data, networks and cybersecurity and technological literacy, which are anticipated to be the top three fastest- growing skills. –Increasing cost of living ranks as the second- most transformative trend overall – and the top trend related to economic conditions – with half of employers expecting it to transform their business by 2030, despite an anticipated reduction in global inflation. General economic slowdown, to a lesser extent, also remains top of mind and is expected to transform 42% of businesses. Inflation is predicted to have a mixed outlook for net job creation to 2030, while slower growth is expected to displace 1.6 million jobs globally. These two impacts on job creation are expected to increase the demand for creative thinking and resilience, flexibility, and agility skills. –Climate-change mitigation is the third-most transformative trend overall – and the top trend related to the green transition – while climate- change adaptation ranks sixth with 47% and 41% of employers, respectively, expecting these trends to transform their business in the next five years. This is driving demand for roles such as renewable energy engineers, environmental engineers and electric and autonomous vehicle specialists, all among the 15 fastest-growing jobs. Climate trends are also expected to drive an increased focus on environmental stewardship, which has entered the Future of Jobs Report’s list of top 10 fastest growing skills for the first time. –Two demographic shifts are increasingly seen to be transforming global economies and labour markets: aging and declining working age populations, predominantly in higher- income economies, and expanding working age populations, predominantly in lower-income economies. These trends drive an increase in demand for skills in talent management, teaching and mentoring, and motivation and self-awareness. Aging populations drive growth in healthcare jobs such as nursing professionals, while growing working-age populations fuel growth in education-related professions, such as higher education teachers. –Geoeconomic fragmentation and geopolitical tensions are expected to drive business model transformation in one-third (34%) of surveyed organizations in the next five years. Over one- fifth (23%) of global employers identify increased restrictions on trade and investment, as well as subsidies and industrial policies (21%), as factors shaping their operations. Almost all economies for which respondents expect these trends to be most transformative have significant trade with the United States and/or China. Employers who expect geoeconomic trends to transform their business are also more likely to offshore – and even more likely to re-shore – operations. These trends are driving demand for security related job roles and increasing demand for network and cybersecurity skills. They are also increasing demand for other human-centred skills such as resilience, flexibility and agility skills, and leadership and social influence. Extrapolating from the predictions shared by Future of Jobs Survey respondents, on current trends over the 2025 to 2030 period job creation and destruction due to structural labour-market transformation will amount to 22% of today’s total jobs. This is expected to entail the creation of new jobs equivalent to 14% of today’s total employment, amounting to 170 million jobs. However, this growth is expected to be offset by the displacement of the equivalent of 8% (or 92 million) of current jobs, resulting in net growth of 7% of total employment, or 78 million jobs. Key findings Future of Jobs Report 2025 January 2025 Future of Jobs Report 2025 5
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