Will We Move Beyond Man Vs Machine In The Fourth Industrial Revolution?

The World Economic Forum released it's Future of Jobs report.  As expected, the business model disruption across technology, societal, and economic forces have created urgency to understand the jobs and skills required for the next decade.   The survey and research design relied on interviews with global CHROs and other senior talent and strategy executives that impacted over 13,549,000 employees.

20160118 Future of Jobs Report Analysis #WEFTalks from Constellation Research on Vimeo.

Inside The Drivers Of Change

The confluence of new technologies, demographics, and socioeconomic shifts have created an impact in how jobs will be created and what skill sets will be required.  Success in the future of jobs may require a recalcuation in
The top five drivers of demographic and socioeconomic drivers of change include

1. Changing work environments and flexible working arrangements (44%)
2. Rise of the middle class in emerging markets (23%)
3. Climate change, natural resource constraints and the transition to a greener economy (23%)
4. Rising geopolitical volatility (21%)
5. New consumer concerns about ethical and privacy issues (16%)

The top five technological drivers of change include:

1. Mobile internet and cloud technology (34%)
2. Advances in computing power and big data (26%)
3. New energy supplies and technology (22%)
4. The internet of things (14%)
5. Crowdsourcing, the sharing economy and P2P platforms (12%)

Figure 1. Time Frame to Impact Industries and Business Models

Source: World Economic Forum
 

The Bottom Line: Drivers Of Change Hint At Larger Systemic Forces Impacting The Labor Market

The confluence of new technologies, demographics, and socioeconomic shifts have created an impact in how jobs will be created and what skill sets will be required.  Success in the future of jobs may require a new perspective on how growth should be calculated.  What if growth was measured by per capita?  The result would show the benefits of a decreasing population abetted by automation, robotics, and AI with a better quality of life.

Your POV.

Where do you see the future of jobs?  Should we aim for decreasing populations to improve quality per capita? What are your questions from the report?
Add your comments to the blog or reach me via email: R (at) ConstellationR (dot) com or R (at) SoftwareInsider (dot) org.

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