IP Carrier: Job Skill Requriements are Shifting Fast, WEF Report Says

Monday, August 26, 2019

Job Skill Requriements are Shifting Fast, WEF Report Says

In about three years, according to a survey of larger employers conducted by the World Economic Forum, 54 percent of all employees will require significant re-skilling and upskilling related to new technologies and trends disrupting business models. “By 2022, the skills required to perform most jobs will have shifted significantly,” the WEF reports.

If that forecast proves to be accurate, we can be fairly certain most firms will have failed to achieve all they intended.

Global average skills stability—the proportion of core skills required to perform a job that will remain the same—is expected to be about 58 percent, meaning an average shift of 42 percent in required workforce skills over the 2018 to 2022 period, just to do the same jobs presently conducted, according to WEF enterprise respondents.

“Human’” skills such as creativity, originality and initiative, critical thinking, persuasion and negotiation will likewise retain or increase their value, as will attention to detail, resilience, flexibility and complex problem-solving, WEF says.

Emotional intelligence, leadership and social influence as well as service orientation also see an outsized increase in demand relative to their current prominence.

Of the more than half (54 percent) of employees who will require “significant” additional skills, about 35 percent are expected to require additional training of up to six months, nine percent will require reskilling lasting six to 12 months, while 10 percent will require additional skills training of more than a year.

Skills continuing to grow in prominence by 2022 include analytical thinking and innovation as well as active learning and learning strategies.

Employers also expect sharply increasing importance of skills such as technology design and programming.

Job titles expected to be in demand in 2022 include: