The World Economic Forum released the Future of Jobs Report 2025, which examines how macrotrends such as technology and the green transition are impacting jobs and skills.
One of the most transformative trends has been broadening digital access. 60% of the surveyed employers expect it to transform their business by 2030. Artificial intelligence and information processing technologies, as well as robots and autonomous systems, are some of the technology types expected to have the greatest impact on jobs
The full extent of the long-term productivity gains from AI remains uncertain, and the adoption of this technology has been uneven across industries. The biggest risk is using this technological development to replace human work without appropriate decision-making frameworks and economic incentive structures.
Currently, 47% of work tasks are performed by humans alone, 22% are performed mainly by technology and 30% by a combination of both. Employers expect these proportions to be evenly split across these three categories by 2030.
According to the report, half of employers plan to reorient their business in response to AI, two-thirds plan to hire talent with specific AI skills and 40% anticipate reducing their workforce where AI can automate tasks.
Broadening digital access is expected to create and displace jobs more than any other macrotrend. AI is expected to create 11 million jobs while displacing 9 million others.
Meanwhile, robots and autonomous systems have seen steady growth of around 5-7% annually since 2020. The concern about humans running out of things to do due to automation is misplaced, as machines and humans are predicted to be significantly more productive in 2030 by performing more or higher-value tasks in the same or less amount of time than it would have taken them to do so in 2025.
Climate-change mitigation and climate-change adaptation also rank high in transformative trends and are expected to drive increased focus on environmental stewardship. Of the surveyed employers, 47% anticipate ramping up their efforts to reduce carbon emissions. The green transition-related macrotrends are among the strongest drivers of net job growth for trade workers.
Combining respondents’ job growth and decline expectations, frontline job roles are predicted to see the largest growth in terms of volume.
The report estimates that workers can expect that 80% of their existing skills will be transformed or outdated over the 2025-2030 period. Some of the skills that will continue to rise in importance over this period include creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, curiosity and lifelong learning.
Also ranking among the top 10 skills on the rise are leadership and social influence, talent management, analytical thinking, and environmental stewardship. Employers are in need of workers who can lead teams, manage talent effectively, and adapt to sustainability and green transitions in an increasingly complex world.
Given these evolving skill demands, upskilling is anticipated to remain crucial. For instance, if the world’s workforce were comprised of 100 people, 59 would require training by 2030.
Skill gaps in the labor market are the primary barriers to business transformation. Employers anticipate that aligning internal processes, organizational structures, and changing mindsets to the trends will be a challenge.
The outlook on talent availability has decreased for this period, with many employers concerned about their ability to find the right talent for the future.
Supporting employee health and well-being is expected to be a top focus for talent attraction, with 64% of employers surveyed identifying it as a key strategy to increase talent availability.
