Reports
Published: 22 January 2020

Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping Opportunity in the New Economy

Through new data sources, we can gain unprecedented insights into emerging opportunities for employment in the global economy, and granular understanding of the skill sets needed by professionals. This new data reveals that 96 jobs across seven professional clusters are fast emerging in tandem reflecting “digital” and “human” factors driving growth in the professions of tomorrow. The jobs of the future are set to grow by 51% in the horizon up to 2020 and we project they will present 6.1 million job opportunities globally. These reflect the adoption of new technologies—giving rise to greater demand for Green Economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the Data and AI economy as well as new roles in Engineering, Cloud Computing, and Product Development. On the other hand, emerging professions also reflect the continuing importance of human interaction in the new economy, giving rise to greater demand for Care economy jobs; roles in Marketing, Sales and Content production; as well as roles at the forefront of People and Culture. The growth and absolute scale of these opportunities will be distinctively determined by the choices and investments made by governments today. 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.

Through new data sources, we can gain unprecedented insights into emerging opportunities for employment in the global economy, and granular understanding of the skill sets needed by professionals. This new data reveals that 96 jobs across seven professional clusters are fast emerging in tandem reflecting “digital” and “human” factors driving growth in the professions of tomorrow. The jobs of the future are set to grow by 51% in the horizon up to 2020 and we project they will present 6.1 million job opportunities globally. These reflect the adoption of new technologies—giving rise to greater demand for Green Economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the Data and AI economy as well as new roles in Engineering, Cloud Computing, and Product Development. On the other hand, emerging professions also reflect the continuing importance of human interaction in the new economy, giving rise to greater demand for Care economy jobs; roles in Marketing, Sales and Content production; as well as roles at the forefront of People and Culture. The growth and absolute scale of these opportunities will be distinctively determined by the choices and investments made by governments today. 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.

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