New data and measurements give us insight into future jobs. Identifying and understanding these jobs help us prioritize skills and training.
The global economy’s growing employment covers a wide range of professions and talents. This allows employees of various backgrounds and educational levels to benefit from the new economy. A “Reskilling Revolution” is underway as individuals seek new skills to stay up with change. Future jobs will require different things than the jobs of the past.
New data is emerging that gives us a new perspective on the future of the job market. This fresh data can teach us five things.
1. No surprise. In the future, tech skills will rule.
Aside from basic tech skills such as digital literacy, graphic design, and web development, all rising jobs require hard tech abilities.
In a recent study, engineering, cloud, and data clusters are among the fastest-growing jobs. AI is increasingly prevalent. Therefore, many professions in sales and marketing will require basic AI knowledge.
Disruptive tech skills are in high demand globally. These are among the most in-demand tech skills on LinkedIn.
2. Human-centric roles will be equally vital in the future.
New content development, sales, and HR roles are emerging as a complement to the fast-growing digital industry.
Jobs like customer success specialists, talent acquisition specialists, and social media assistants require more diversified skill sets.
Soft skills are especially important. Soft skills will be in demand as automation spreads.
In a recent report, HR experts worldwide rank soft skills as the most essential trend. As job roles become more interdisciplinary and collaborative, a well-structured job architecture ensures that soft skills are not only valued but also essential for success within the organizational framework. Skills like persuasion, creativity, and teamwork are nearly impossible to automate. This makes them even more important to employers in the future.
3. Job changes will have left many women out.
However, a closer look at the data reveals a disturbing imbalance in those acquiring the latest abilities.
The biggest gender gaps in new jobs are in roles that rely heavily on disruptive tech skills. The number of women represented in engineering, cloud, and data jobs is below 30%.
It will be important to close this gap. These disruptive digital skills will have a huge influence on society and the economy.
Increasing diversity in recruiting and inclusive managerial practices will help reach gender parity. However, the evidence suggests that these advances may not be enough.
4. Untapped talent can fill future emerging job gaps.
We need to conceive of new ways of filling these growing gaps in talents and responsibilities to avoid future skill and position gaps.
Tapping into new, unused talent resources is going to be vital in the future.
5. Your network will still matter.
Closing the skills and gender gaps requires more than just ensuring talent has the necessary abilities.
We need to close the network gap. In other words, some people have an advantage over others based solely on who they know.
Research shows that living in a high-income neighborhood, attending a top school, and working at a top company give you a 12x edge in networking.
This means that two persons with the same skills but born into different neighborhoods may have vastly different chances.
However, it will require more than statistics to make the Fourth Industrial Revolution a fair one. We need businesses and government leaders to rethink how we design legislation. In addition, they must change how they hire people and eventually they must think about leveling the playing field for individuals who confront hurdles to opportunity.
