Towards a Reskilling Revolution

The report presents a big data approach to mapping job transitions by calculating 'similarity scores' between roles based on skills, knowledge, and experience. Using US Bureau of Labor Statistics projections for 2026, it demonstrates that the vast majority of workers in declining roles can transition to stable, higher-paying jobs, often by moving to a different job family.

• The report introduces a methodology to assess job transition viability using 'similarity scores' (ranging from 0 to 1) that measure the overlap in work activities, knowledge, skills, abilities, education, and experience between two roles.
• A job transition is defined as 'viable' if it has a medium or high similarity score (at least 0.85) and does not require unrealistic leaps in education or experience, restricted to changes of no more than +/-1 'job zone'.
• A transition is considered 'desirable' if the target job has stable long-term employment prospects (not forecast to decline by 2026) and provides wage continuity or increases.
• Based on US Bureau of Labor Statistics projections for 2026, the US labour market is expected to see a structural decline of 1.4 million redundant jobs and a growth of 12.4 million new jobs.
• The 'leadership lens' optimization model found that 96% of US workers projected to be displaced by 2026 (nearly 1.4 million individuals) have 'good-fit' job transition options.
• Most 'good-fit' transitions (70%) require workers to move into a different job family, while only 30% can find viable transitions within their current job family.
• The Office and Administrative and Production job families are the most heavily disrupted, accounting for 80% of total job losses (1.15 million jobs).
• Approximately 4.7% of displaced US workers (about 57,000 individuals) lack immediately viable transition options, with concentrations in roles such as Postal Service Mail Sorters, Processing Machine Operators, and Sewing Machine Operators.
• Reskilling can significantly reduce the opportunity gap between genders; while at-risk male-dominated professions have 22 options and female-dominated ones have 12 without reskilling, these increase to 80 and 49 options respectively with reskilling.
• Under a model requiring stable wages, transitions typically require an average of two additional years of education and two additional years of work experience.

APA

World Economic Forum (2018). Towards a Reskilling Revolution. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOW_Reskilling_Revolution.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Towards a Reskilling Revolution. 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOW_Reskilling_Revolution.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Towards a Reskilling Revolution |date=January 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOW_Reskilling_Revolution.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2018towards, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Towards a Reskilling Revolution}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_FOW_Reskilling_Revolution.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }