Engineering specialists in materials, biochemicals, nanotech and robotics will become critically important to the industries by 2020, claims new research by the World Economic Forum.
The report, titled “The Future of Jobs”, looked at how The Fourth Industrial Revolution would disrupt business models and labour markets over the next five years. The Fourth Industrial Revolution will see the convergence of multiple fields, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics, nanotechnology, 3D printing and genetics and biotechnology.
This, combined with other socio-economic and demographic changes, will result in the net loss of over five million jobs in 15 major developed and emerging economies.
According to the report, the rate of change means that at conservative estimates, 7.1 million jobs could be lost through redundancy, automation or disintermediation over the next five years, while 2.1 million new jobs will be created, mostly in specialised areas such as Computer and Mathematical or Architecture and Engineering.
Drivers of change will also depend on specific industries. For instance, new energy supplies and technologies will have a particular impact on Energy, Basic and Infrastructure, and Mobility. Processing power and big data will have an especially strong impact on Information and Communication Technology, Financial Services and Professional Services.
Industries expected to create the most jobs are Information and Communication Technology, followed by Professional Services and Media, Entertainment and Information. Technologies like big data, mobile, Internet of Things and robotics will potentially create many new jobs.
It’s not just the industries that are changing, however. The nature of work is also changing, as new technologies make “anytime, anywhere” work possible. Tasks and jobs are being fragmented and combined in new ways.
This will lead to skills instability, where existing jobs will evolve to require rapidly changing sets of skills. This will impact all industries, but in the engineering space, Basics and Infrastructure and Mobility will be most affected by this issue.
To deal with these challenges, the World Economic forum recommends businesses and employers take more responsibility for upskilling, reskilling and collaborating rather than competing on talent. This is already the case in a clear majority of businesses, who are investing in skills, rather than hiring short-term or virtual workers, in order to manage the disruptions to the labour market.
Governments will also need to make rapid and fundamental changes in their education systems to prepare for the new labour market.
With low participation by women in the areas where job growth is expected, the employment gender gap between men and women is expected to grow. To address this, leaders must address the chronic problem of getting more women into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) professions.
“Without urgent and targeted action today to manage the near-term transition and build a workforce with futureproof skills, governments will have to cope with ever-growing unemployment and inequality, and businesses with a shrinking consumer base,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.