Goodbye mailroom staff, bank clerks and data typists. Your jobs are the top three functions that will be less and less needed in the coming years in the global, digitalizing business world.
And welcome to the specialists in ‘big data’, who can analyze large amounts of business data in smart ways. And to experts in the field of financial technology (‘fintech’) and experts in artificial intelligence and machine learning. You represent the top three positions that companies will increasingly need over the next five years.
The lists are in the new one Future of Jobs Report 2025. The report published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Wednesday attempts to paint a picture of the future of work.
By 2030, only a third of all work in companies will be done entirely by people
The conclusions are based on a sample of more than a thousand employers, together accounting for more than 14 million employees in 22 industrial sectors and 55 countries. Six out of ten employers expect that digitalization will radically change their business operations by 2030.
Gap
According to the report, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics will mean that by 2030, only a third of all work in companies will be done entirely by humans. Currently, people still perform almost half of all tasks.
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“A third of human work will also be carried out in collaboration with technology,” says professor Henk Volberda (strategy and innovation, UvA). His Amsterdam Center for Business Innovation took care of the data collection in the Netherlands for the WEF.
“While many functions are disappearing due to AI and robotization,” says Volberda, “the rise of technology, the green transition and demographic shifts also offer new opportunities.”
The WEF report foresees a structural transformation of the labor market between 2025 and 2030. Some functions will disappear and other functions will take their place.
Millions of new jobs will be created within five years, especially technology positions – for computer experts, of course, but also for specialists in autonomous and electric vehicles, environmental technicians and renewable energy engineers. According to the WEF, this involves 170 million new jobs, or a growth of 14 percent of the current number.
Outdated
But functions also disappear. Work that evaporates is mainly administrative and secretarial in nature. The WEF sees little career prospects for cashiers, counter clerks, administrative assistants and executive secretaries. Here the number of jobs worldwide falls by 92 million, or 8 percent.
“Further training and retraining remain essential to bridge the gap between disappearing and growing positions,” says Professor Volberda. “And companies will have to increasingly invest in the well-being and diversity of their employees.”
According to the WEF report, 39 percent of current worker skills will become obsolete between 2025 and 2030. That sounds alarming, but the percentage is lower than in previous editions of the Future of Jobs Report.
Within five years, 170 million new jobs will be created
In the 2023 edition, the researchers spoke of 44 percent of skills becoming obsolete and in 2020 even of 57 percent. A growing number of employees are likely to have completed additional training, upskilling or retraining, the report said. One in nine employees will lose their job because they have not received any training or have received insufficient training.
Customer service
Volberda: “In the Netherlands, the talent shortage is one of the biggest challenges for the period 2025-2030. As many as 56 percent of Dutch companies expect to have difficulty finding suitable personnel, while only 15 percent are optimistic about an improvement in the availability of talent.”
No fewer than 86 percent of companies in the Netherlands are committed to accelerating the automation of processes and tasks. Volberda: “Dutch companies apply this strategy more often than their global competitors.”
In December, ING also published research into the effect of artificial intelligence on the labor market. Nearly one in five directors of large Dutch companies almost certainly expect AI to replace jobs in the long term, according to ING. That is more than the year before when 6 percent of directors thought so. Jobs in customer service, IT and research departments will be particularly affected, according to the 263 executives surveyed.