The World Economic Forum predicts the global labor markets will see 14 million more jobs slashed than created in the next five years.
The WEF’s “Future of Jobs” report expects that 69 million jobs will be created between 2023 and 2027, but that 83 million jobs will be destroyed. The annual report is based on survey responses from over 800 companies.
The figures constitute “a structural labour-market churn of 152 million jobs, or 23% of the 673 million employees in the data set being studied,” according to the research.
A net loss of 14 million jobs represents 2 percent of current employment. The analysis, though, notes that the count is “subject to a high degree of uncertainty.”
The expected changes are attributed to a changing work landscape, driven by emerging technologies, climate change adaptation and other factors.
In 2016, the annual report suggested that 35 percent of workers’ skills would be disrupted in the following five years. In 2023, the analysis predicts 44 percent of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years.
“The human-machine frontier has shifted,” the World Economic Forum said, though businesses are introducing automation “at a slower pace than previously anticipated.” Organizations estimate that 34 percent of today’s business-related tasks are machine-performed, and the new report predicts that figure will reach 42 percent by 2027.