ChatGPT did not write this. But artificial intelligence will continue to have a profound impact on the job market over the next five years. That’s one of the takeaways from a new report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) that maps out the future of employment. The report says that by 2027, nearly one-quarter of the labour market will experience disruption – signalling a significant shift as jobs are lost and created.
The key drivers of this change are the technology, environmental and economic sectors. There’s going to be a net loss of 14 million jobs, or about 2% of current employment, according to the WEF.
This is the fourth edition of the Future of Jobs Report, which poses questions to 803 companies that collectively employ more than 11.3 million people working in 27 sectors and 45 economies across the globe. And it’s reflective of growing analysis of the impact that AI is having on the labour market. A Goldman Sachs report released earlier this year found that around 300 million jobs could be affected by AI. Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index found that 82% of business leaders surveyed said employees will need new skills to be prepared for the growth of AI.
Globally, the green transition could create 30 million jobs in clean energy, efficiency and low-emissions technologies by 2030.
–WEF Future of Jobs Report
Amid the AI growth was another parallel trend in a positive direction for the green jobs: in addition to big-data analytics, the largest drivers of job growth are expected to be climate-change mitigation and environmental-management technologies, as well as encryption and cybersecurity, the WEF report says. “Globally, the green transition could create 30 million jobs in clean energy, efficiency and low-emissions technologies by 2030.” Sustainability specialists were among the fastest-growing job posts, according to LinkedIn research conducted for WEF
Other surveys have also pointed to the employment opportunities for those with expertise in sustainability. A report from Clean Energy Canada found that the clean energy sector was slated to grow by almost 50% from 2020 to 2030 – from 430,500 jobs to 639,200 jobs. In the United States, some 142,000 new clean energy jobs for electricians, mechanics and construction workers, among others, have been created since August 2022, according to advocacy group Climate Power. On the other hand, Ford announced earlier this year that it is slashing 11% of its European workforce, driven in part by its pivot to an electric car lineup.
The winds are indeed changing. According to the Future of Jobs Report, it’s largely clerical or data-entry positions that will be replaced by more digitization and technology in the workplace. The companies surveyed for the WEF report estimated that 34% of all business-related tasks are now performed by machines. That’s less than what companies had predicted in the 2020 edition of the report. Respondents to the 2023 survey forecast that by 2027, some 42% of business tasks will be automated.
While 49% of people say they’re worried AI will replace their jobs, 70% would delegate as much work as possible to AI to lessen their workloads.
–Microsoft’s 2023 Work Trend Index
“But while expectations of the displacement of physical and manual work by machines has decreased, reasoning, communicating and coordinating – all traits with a comparative advantage for humans – are expected to be more automatable in the future,” the report notes.
Amid the AI buzz, the Microsoft report highlights what it describes as an “AI–employee alliance.” It notes that “while 49% of people say they’re worried AI will replace their jobs, even more – 70% – would delegate as much work as possible to AI to lessen their workloads.”
