May 2023 Future of Jobs Report 2023 Key findings Economic, health and geopolitical trends have The largest job creation and destruction effects created divergent outcomes for labour markets come from environmental, technology and globally in 2023. While tight labour markets are economic trends. Among the macrotrends listed, prevalent in high-income countries, low- and businesses predict the strongest net job-creation lower-middle-income countries continue to see effect to be driven by investments that facilitate higher unemployment than before the COVID-19 the green transition of businesses, the broader pandemic. On an individual level, labour-market application of ESG standards and supply chains outcomes are also diverging, as workers with becoming more localized, albeit with job growth only basic education and women face lower offset by partial job displacement in each case. employment levels. At the same time, real wages Climate change adaptation and the demographic are declining as a result of an ongoing cost-of- dividend in developing and emerging economies living crisis, and changing worker expectations and also rate high as net job creators. Technological concerns about the quality of work are becoming advancement through increased adoption of more prominent issues globally. new and frontier technologies and increased digital access are expected to drive job growth The fourth edition of the Survey has the widest in more than half of surveyed companies, offset coverage thus far by topic, geography and by expected job displacement in one-fifth of sector. The Future of Jobs Survey brings together companies. The net job creation effect places these th th the perspective of 803 companies – collectively two trends in 6 and 8 place respectively. The employing more than 11.3 million workers – across three key drivers of expected net job destruction 27 industry clusters and 45 economies from all are slower economic growth, supply shortages world regions. The Survey covers questions of and the rising cost of inputs, and the rising cost of macrotrends and technology trends, their impact living for consumers. Employers also recognize that on jobs, their impact on skills, and the workforce increased geopolitical divisions and the ongoing transformation strategies businesses plan to use, impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will drive labour- across the 2023-2027 timeframe. market disruption – with an even split between employers who expect these trends to have a Technology adoption will remain a key driver positive impact and employers who expect them to of business transformation in the next five have a negative impact on jobs. years. Over 85% of organizations surveyed identify increased adoption of new and frontier Within technology adoption, big data, cloud technologies and broadening digital access as the computing and AI feature highly on likelihood of trends most likely to drive transformation in their adoption. More than 75% of companies are looking organization. Broader application of Environmental, to adopt these technologies in the next five years. Social and Governance (ESG) standards within The data also shows the impact of the digitalization their organizations will also have a significant of commerce and trade. Digital platforms and apps impact. The next most-impactful trends are are the technologies most likely to be adopted by macroeconomic: the rising cost of living and slow the organizations surveyed, with 86% of companies economic growth. The impact of investments to expecting to incorporate them into their operations drive the green transition was judged to be the in the next five years. E-commerce and digital trade sixth-most impactful macrotrend, followed by are expected to be adopted by 75% of businesses. supply shortages and consumer expectations The second-ranked technology encompasses around social and environmental issues. Though education and workforce technologies, with 81% still expected to drive the transformation of of companies looking to adopt these technologies almost half of companies in the next five years, by 2027. The adoption of robots, power storage the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, technology and distributed ledger technologies rank increased geopolitical divisions and demographic lower on the list. dividends in developing and emerging economies were ranked lower as drivers of business evolution The impact of most technologies on jobs is by respondents. expected to be a net positive over the next five years. Big data analytics, climate change Future of Jobs Report 2023 5