The Future of Jobs Report is the World Economic Forum’s biennial read on where work is heading. This fifth edition draws on a survey of more than 1,000 employers representing over 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies. Its central projection: churn on a large scale, but net job growth to 2030, paid for by a reskilling effort touching most of the workforce. The findings map directly onto SDG 8, decent work and economic growth.
The headline
On current trends, structural change will create the equivalent of 170 million new jobs by 2030, or 14% of today’s employment, while displacing 92 million, or 8%. That leaves a net gain of 78 million jobs, roughly 7% of the 1.2 billion formal jobs in the dataset, alongside total churn equal to 22% of employment. Growth is concentrated in technology and green roles; the losses fall on clerical and secretarial work. The catch is skills: employers expect 39% of workers’ existing skill sets to be transformed or outdated by 2030, and reskilling at scale is the condition on which the net gain depends.
The numbers
- Net job growth. 170 million jobs created and 92 million displaced by 2030, a net gain of 78 million, with combined churn equal to 22% of the 1.2 billion formal jobs studied.
- Reskilling need. If the workforce were 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030; 29 could be upskilled in place, 19 upskilled and redeployed, and 11 would likely miss out entirely.
- Skill instability. 39% of core skills are expected to change by 2030, down from 44% in the 2023 edition and a pandemic-era peak of 57% in 2020.
- Top drivers. Broadening digital access leads the macrotrends overall at 60% of employers, ahead of rising cost of living (50%), climate-change mitigation (47%) and ageing populations (40%); among technologies specifically, AI and information processing dominates at 86%, followed by robots and autonomous systems at 58%.
- Fastest-growing roles. In percentage terms, Big Data Specialists, FinTech Engineers, AI and Machine Learning Specialists, and Software and Applications Developers top the list; frontline roles such as Farmworkers and Delivery Drivers grow most in absolute numbers.
- Fastest-declining roles. Cashiers and Ticket Clerks and Administrative Assistants shrink most in absolute terms, while Postal Service Clerks, Bank Tellers and Data Entry Clerks decline fastest.
- Biggest barrier. 63% of employers name skill gaps as a major obstacle, and 85% plan to prioritise upskilling their workforce.
The counting angle
These are among the most-cited jobs numbers in circulation, so it is worth being clear about what they count. They are not a census of work. They are employer expectations, gathered from just over 1,000 firms and extrapolated against ILO employment data covering 1.2 billion formal jobs across 55 economies that meet the report’s statistical thresholds. Informal work, which accounts for the majority of employment in many lower-income economies, sits largely outside the frame, as do the smallest firms and the economies too data-poor to profile. A projection built on what employers anticipate is a forecast of sentiment as much as of jobs.
Watch & read
- Future of Jobs Report 2025, the full report (World Economic Forum).
- ILO World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2025, the official statistics on unemployment, the jobs gap and informality.
Figures are as reported by the World Economic Forum, drawn from the Future of Jobs Survey 2024 and ILO employment data. Projections are the report’s own estimates for the 2025–2030 period and reflect surveyed employer expectations rather than observed outcomes.