The Future of Jobs Report, 2020

News: World Economic Forum (WEF) has released the Future of Jobs Report, 2020.

Facts:

• About the report: The report maps the jobs and skills of the future by tracking the pace of change.

Key Highlights from the report:

• Reskilling: 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025 as adoption of technology increases.
• Effect of Automation on Jobs: Faster than expected workforce automation would displace around 85 million jobs globally in medium and large businesses across 15 industries and 26 economies.
  • However, 97 million new roles may emerge that are more adapted to the new division of labour between humans, machines and algorithms.
• Skills in Demand: Critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills that employers believe will grow in prominence in the next five years.
• Top 5 Jobs in Demand: AI and machine learning specialists, data analysts and scientists, information security analysts, internet of things specialists and big data specialists will be the top five jobs in demand.
• Jobs that will become redundant: Jobs like administrative and executive secretaries, general and operations managers, assembly and factory workers, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll clerks and data entry clerks will find themselves redundant.
• Inequality: In the absence of proactive efforts, inequality is likely to increase by the dual impact of technology and the pandemic recession.

Recommendations:

• Government should secure the life of the displaced workers by providing them access to the social safety nets.
• Government should take necessary measures to improve their education and skills and should also offer incentives for businesses in order to invest in future jobs. 
• The private sector should organise training programmes and skill development programmes in order to enable the workforce to match with the technology.

Additional Facts:

• World Economic Forum(WEF): It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva,Switzerland.
• Reports: a) Global Competitiveness Report b) Global Gender Gap Report c) Global Risks Report and d) Global Travel and Tourism Report among others.