Like it or not, technological advances have accelerated the transformation of traditional jobs as we knew them, just as they have happened before in history. In fact, technological adoption will be the main factor for business development in the next five years, according to the 85% of companies globally, highlighted the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The group presented the Report on the future of employment 2023which highlights that four out of five companies surveyed positioned the adoption of new and cutting-edge technologies and digitization as the most solid trends for the transformation of their organizations in the short term.
This element is one of the main sources of pressure for the labor market, it is even estimated that by the year 2027, the 23% of jobs will be transformed by technological progress.
The outlook, at least in terms of technological progress and its impact on employment, is positive, since it is expected that the creation of jobs related to this area, such as big data, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI), to cite a few cases, compensate for the destruction of squares in other areas. 75% of companies plan to adopt this type of technology in the next five years.
“It is expected that the impact of most technologies in employment will be clearly positive in the next five years: the analysis of large volumes of data, technologies for managing climate change and the environment, and encryption and cybersecurity will be the main drivers of employment growth”, points out the WEF in the report.
The areas in which the greatest “significant alteration” of the working market they are those related to agricultural technologies, digital platforms and applications, e-commerce and AI, “with substantial proportions of companies that foresee the displacement of jobs in their organizations, offset by employment growth elsewhere”, which would result in a positive balance.
“All but two technologies are expected to be net job creators in the next five years: humanoid robots and non-humanoid robots”, he adds.
In the case of Mexico, and according to WEF data, AI specialists and accountants are at both ends of the list of jobs considered key for the transformation and development of business in the country.
Next key jobsas well as its level of growth:
- AI specialists and machine learning (38%)
- Big data specialists/big data (35%)
- Application developers (35%)
- Business intelligence analysts (22%)
- Project managers (18%)
- Operations managers (18%)
Meanwhile, these are the jobs considered less strategic in the country and the drop in demand from companies:
- Accountants and auditors (-43%)
- Accounting, bookkeeping and payroll staff (-34%)
- Data capturers (-27%)
- Business administration and services managers (-21%)
- Factory and assembly workers (-15%)
- Lawyers (-11%)
In this way, the fastest growing roles they are driven by technology, digitization and sustainability. Meanwhile, those that will have the greatest reduction will be those related to administrative tasks, such as office or secretarial staff, cashiers and postal services.
Analysis and creativity lead the demand
The cognitive habilyties related to analytical thinking and creative thinking are considered the most relevant for workers in 2023, above resilience, flexibility and agility -self-efficacy skills-, this due to instability scenarios and the need to adapt of companies.
“Employers estimate that 44% of workers’ skills will be altered in the next five years. Cognitive competencies are the fastest growing in importance, reflecting the growing importance of complex problem solving in the workplace.
In the case of Mexico, it is also projected that two out of five workers will require training to develop new skills. In this context, the competencies considered most important by companies in the country are:
- Analytical thinking (54%)
- Creative thinking (49%)
- Artificial intelligence and big data (48%)
- Resilience, flexibility and agility (42%)
- Leadership and social influence (32%)
- Empathy and active listening (31%)
- Curiosity and permanent learning (29%)
- Environmental management (27%)
- Design and user experience (24%)
- Service orientation and customer service (24%)
Despite recognition of the need for training and retraining of the workforce, only half of workers have access to job training appropriate, warns the WEF.
In addition, companies are more focused on developing technical skills related to data management and artificial intelligence than the soft skills that they themselves recognize as key, such as analytical and creative thinking. This should lead organizations to rethink their training strategies to face the changes that the labor market will have.
