An in-depth study from the World Economic Forum has revealed the 96 “jobs of tomorrow,” representing emerging opportunities for employment in the global economy.
Supported by data from Burning Glass Technologies, Coursera and LinkedIn, the study identified seven key professional clusters with emerging prospects across the future of work.
Collectively set to yield 6.1 million new job opportunities in the coming three years, the clusters comprised: data and artificial intelligence (AI); the care economy; the green economy; engineering and cloud computing; people and culture; product development; and sales, marketing and content.
High-volume jobs identified included artificial intelligence specialists, medical transcriptionists, data scientists, customer success specialists and full stack engineers.
The report predicted highest annual growth rates in the data and AI, green economy, and engineering and cloud computing professional clusters at 41 per cent, 35 per cent and 34 per cent respectively.
Within the stream of engineering and cloud computing, emerging jobs included site reliability engineer, python developer, full stack engineer and JavaScript developer, with the corresponding Top 10 skills most in demand including development tools, web development and data storage technologies.
Diverse skill set
Mirroring the rising importance of ‘soft skills’ in the engineering profession, the report also found that the demand for both ‘digital’ and ‘human’ factors contributed towards the professions of the future.
The adoption of new technologies is set to give rise to greater demand for green economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the data and AI economy, and roles in engineering, cloud computing and product development.
Meanwhile, the ongoing importance of human interaction in the new economy will create greater demand for care economy jobs; roles in marketing, sales and content production; and roles in people and culture.
“The seven professions of the future outlined in this report, and their corresponding skills needs, reflect the significant diversity of opportunity in the labour market, and offer opportunities for both high- and low-skilled employment,” the report noted.
“While disruptive technology skills such as data science and AI skills will certainly be critical to the future of work, so will caregiving, leadership, and the ability to provide learning and development. In other words, the transition to the new world of work will be both human- and tech-centric.”
Shaping the future
The effect of government choices and investment towards shaping employment prospects was also noted.
“New investments in the green economy, such as a focus on renewable energy, have the potential to lead to expanding employment prospects in this sector,” the report noted.
“In addition, renewed focus on closing gender gaps in labour force participation can drive further demand for care economy jobs, as can better quality standards in the care sector.
“This report demonstrates that we have at our fingertips tools that offer unprecedented, granular insight into the nature of opportunity in the labour market. The emerging imperative is to use such tools wisely and in the service of workers in their quest for productive, fulfilling employment.”