The global economy faces a re-skilling crisis with 1.4 million jobs, in the US alone, vulnerable to disruption from technology and other factors by 2026, according to a new report: Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All, published by the World Economic Forum at Davos.
The report analyses nearly 1,000 job types across the US economy, encompassing 96 per cent of employment in the country. The purpose: to assess the scale of the reskilling task required to protect workforces from an expected wave of automation brought on by what the founder of the forum, Klaus Schwab, famously calls the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The report found that 57 per cent of jobs expected to be disrupted belong to women, yet it said that right now, just 16 per cent of workers would have no opportunities to transition and another 25 per cent would have only between one and three matches.
Yet if finds that at the other end of the spectrum, two per cent of workers have more than 50 options.
The report claims that with re-skilling, the average worker in the US economy would have 48 viable job transitions – nearly as much as the two per cent with the most options today. Among those transitions, 24 jobs would lead to higher wages.
“The only limiting factor on a world of opportunities for people is the willingness of leaders to make investments in re-skilling that will bridge workers onto new jobs. This report shows that this investment has very high returns for businesses as well as economies – and ensures that workers find a purpose in their lives,” said Klaus Schwab.
