The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The report analyzes how technological, demographic, and socio-economic disruptions are transforming the global workforce. It identifies a net loss of over 5.1 million jobs by 2020, primarily in administrative roles, while predicting growth in STEM-related fields. The document emphasizes the urgent need for reskilling and upskilling to mitigate talent shortages and growing inequality, while also addressing the persistent gender gap in high-growth sectors.

• The global workforce is projected to experience a net employment loss of more than 5.1 million jobs between 2015 and 2020, with 7.1 million jobs lost and 2 million jobs gained.
• Job losses are heavily concentrated in the Office and Administrative job family, which is facing a 'perfect storm' of technological and socio-economic disruptions.
• Strong employment growth is expected in the Computer and Mathematical and Architecture and Engineering job families, driven by the need for data analysts and specialists to manage automated systems.
• Skills instability is high across all job categories, with an average of more than one-third of core skill sets for most occupations expected to change by 2020.
• Demand for social skills, such as emotional intelligence and persuasion, is expected to be higher across industries than for narrow technical skills like programming.
• Geopolitical volatility is identified as the single greatest threat to global employment and job creation.
• There is a significant gender imbalance in high-growth STEM roles, which risks worsening the gender gap as women are under-represented in the fastest-growing job families.
• The most significant barriers to effective workforce change management are a lack of understanding of disruptive changes, resource constraints, and short-term profitability pressures.
• Reskilling current employees is the highest-ranked strategy for future workforce planning, with approximately two-thirds of respondents intending to invest in it.
• The report identifies 'data analysts' and 'specialized sales representatives' as two of the most consistently mentioned new and emerging roles across industries.

APA

World Economic Forum (2016). The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 2016. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution |date=January 2016 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2016future, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{The Future of Jobs Employment, Skills and Workforce Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2016}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }