While currently "jobs of the future" represent 506 out of every 10,000 job opportunities, by 2022, this share will have risen to 611 out of every 10,000 job opportunities.
It's not just digital skills that will be needed for the professions of the future: uniquely human "soft skills" will also be in demand, according to the World Economic Forum's report, "Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping Opportunity in the New Economy."
The WEF identified seven emerging professional clusters and 96 "jobs of tomorrow" within them. While currently these clusters represent 506 out of every 10,000 job opportunities, by 2022, this share will have risen to 611 out of every 10,000 job opportunities, the WEF estimates.
"On the one hand, these reflect the adoption of new technologies — giving rise to greater demand for green economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the data and AI economy as well as new roles in engineering, cloud computing and product development," the WEF writes. "On the other hand, emerging professions also reflect the continuing importance of human interaction in the new economy, giving rise to greater demand for care economy jobs; roles in marketing, sales and content production; as well as roles at the forefront of people and culture."
The highest-growth jobs of tomorrow span all seven profession clusters, according to the report. The roles with the highest rate of growth within high-volume jobs include artificial intelligence specialists, medical transcriptionists, data scientists, customer success specialists and full-stack engineers. Within lower-volume jobs, the highest growth is in landfill biogas generation system technicians, social media assistants, wind turbine service technicians, green marketers and growth hackers.
The highest-demand skills required in these emerging professional clusters span both technical and cross-functional skills, according to the report. These in-demand skills are further divided into five skills clusters: business skills, specialized industry skills, general and soft skills, tech baseline skills and tech disruptive skills. While some professional clusters — such as data and AI and engineering and cloud computing — require strong expertise in digital technologies, other high-growth professions place greater emphasis on business skills or specialized industry skills.
"Few analysts propose that technological disruption will lead to shrinking opportunities in the aggregate, and many of the insights gathered point to the emergence of new job opportunities across labor markets," the WEF writes. "However, the type of opportunities that are set to materialize are also changing fast, in tandem with the evolving needs of the technological and economic context — demanding pragmatic and effective mechanisms to support workers' transitions to the new opportunities that lie ahead."
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Katie Kuehner-Hebert
Katie Kuehner-Hebert is a freelance writer based in Running Springs, Calif. She has more than three decades of journalism experience, with particular expertise in employee benefits and other human resource topics.
