Future of Jobs Report 2025: What’s shaping the future of the global workforce?

Our newly released Future of Jobs Report 2025 reveals five key factors that will drive a net creation of 78 million jobs globally by 2030: technological changes, the green transition, demographic shifts, geoeconomic fragmentation and economic uncertainty.

The report brings together perspectives of over 1000 companies, collectively employing more than 14 million workers globally, to project emerging and declining roles, skill shifts, and the workforce practices businesses are developing to manage the evolving labour market.

Among these drivers, technological change is expected to have the biggest impact on jobs by 2030 – both creating and displacing them.

The green transition and demographic shifts are generally expected to create additional jobs, while economic uncertainty is generally expected to displace jobs.

Geo-economic fragmentation and geopolitical tensions are expected to have a lower impact on the number of jobs created and destroyed.

These trends collectively drive many of the largest growing jobs such as delivery drivers, construction workers, salespersons and food service workers.

The two big demographic shifts: the aging and declining workforces, predominantly in higher-income economies, and the expanding working age populations in lower-income economies are driving demand for care and education professionals, respectively.

Meanwhile, the green transition is leading to an increased growth in farming occupations.

The fastest growing and declining roles in percentage terms tend to be driven by technological change, with the notable exceptions of environmental and renewable energy engineers – driven by the green transition.

Looking at total job growth and decline globally, we expect job growth of 14%, offset by a job decline of 8% by 2030. While this gives a net positive outlook, skill development efforts are needed to support workers in transitioning into growing roles. Evolving skills demands will be paramount in shaping the future labour market.

Just under 40% of workers’ core skills are expected to change by 2030.

Today’s core skills are a blend of cognitive, self-efficacy, and engagement skills.

Looking ahead to 2030, technology skills dominate the fastest-growing skills, driven by ongoing technological change.

Geoeconomic fragmentation and economic uncertainty are also driving demand for some of the fastest-growing skills, including creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility and leadership.

Meanwhile, the green transition is driving demand for environmental skills, and demographic shifts are increasing the need for talent management, teaching and mentoring, and motivation and self-awareness skills.

In a world of evolving skills demands, most workers will need training, yet not everyone will have access to it.

Skills gaps are companies’ biggest barrier – much more restrictive than regulatory issues or investment capital.

With skills gaps at the top of their minds, employers increasingly recognize the value of employee well-being, rating it as the top business practice to increase talent availability. Equally important are initiatives like reskilling, upskilling, and improving talent progression.

In addition, the changing labour market is marked by automation taking over an increasing share of all work tasks.

The growth of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) is prompting half of businesses to realign their organizations.

It’s creating a strong demand for skilled talent, with over two-thirds of employers planning to hire for AI-specific roles, even as 40% foresee workforce adjustments in response to its adoption.

These labour market impacts see considerable regional variation.

Broadening digital access is the top concern in most parts of the world, however Eastern Asia is more concerned about ageing populations, while the Middle East and Northern Africa are feeling the pinch of high living costs.

The Report features more region, economy and industry insights and the corresponding data may also be accessed online via an interactive data explorer tool.

The Future of Jobs Report identifies key aspects for labour market collaboration, including a need for proactive and dynamic job transitions and balancing deeper automation alongside broader augmentation. The future of work will be shaped by the policy, business and investment decisions made by leaders today. The World Economic Forum supports building a future-ready, inclusive workforce through its two human capital flagship initiatives: The Reskilling Revolution and The Jobs Initiative.

By addressing skill gaps and building workforce resilience today, employers can navigate uncertainty and create opportunities for tomorrow.

The Future of Jobs Report 2025 provides essential insights to help businesses and governments prepare for the changes reshaping the global labour market.

Explore the full report and start your journey toward a future-ready workforce.