Future of Jobs Report 2025
S · Shapes the field World Economic Forum flagship biennial report, built on a survey of over 1,000 large employers across 55 economies; its job churn and skills figures are the most quoted numbers in workforce planning.
Summary based on the full text·Original: about 3 hours to read
In short
The fifth edition of the WEF Future of Jobs Report (January 2025) asks over 1,000 employers, together employing more than 14 million workers in 22 industry clusters and 55 economies, how macro trends and technology will change jobs and skills to 2030. It projects structural churn equal to 22% of today's formal jobs, with net growth of 7%. AI is the most cited technology driver, but broadening digital access ranks as the most transformative trend overall, and frontline jobs see the largest absolute growth.
Key numbers
- 170 millionjobs projected to be created 2025-2030, 14% of today's total employment
- 92 millionjobs projected to be displaced over the same period, leaving net growth of 78 million (7%)
- 39%share of workers' existing skill sets expected to be transformed or outdated by 2030
- 59 of 100workers who would need training by 2030; 11 of them unlikely to receive it
- 86%employers expecting AI and information processing to transform their business by 2030
As reported by the source.
English·PDF·opens reports.weforum.org
What it reports
- 170 million jobs created and 92 million displaced by 2030, net 78 million, a churn of 22% of 1.2 billion formal jobs in the dataset.
- 86% of employers expect AI and information processing to transform their business; robotics and automation 58%; broadening digital access 60%.
- Largest absolute growth: farmworkers, delivery drivers, construction workers, salespersons, food processing workers. Fastest growth in percentage terms: big data specialists, fintech engineers, AI and machine learning specialists.
- Largest absolute declines: cashiers and ticket clerks, administrative assistants and executive secretaries; fastest declines include postal clerks, bank tellers and data entry clerks.
- Skill instability: 39% of skills expected to change, down from 44% in 2023 and 57% in 2020; 50% of workers have completed training, up from 41%.
- 63% of employers name skill gaps as the main barrier; 85% plan to prioritise upskilling, 70% to hire for new skills, 40% to reduce staff whose skills become less relevant, 50% to move staff from declining to growing roles.
How they got it
The Future of Jobs Survey of large employers, combined with ILO employment data and LinkedIn and Coursera data for skills. Job creation and displacement figures are extrapolated from employers' expected changes in their own workforce, scaled to formal employment.
Limits
- Expectations of large employers, not observed outcomes; small firms and informal work are outside the sample.
- Job counts are extrapolations from survey responses, so the precision of "170 million" overstates what is known.
- Fieldwork predates the 2025 wave of agentic tools; AI effects on entry-level hiring are not measured.
Why it matters for companies
The report is a benchmark more than a forecast: it tells you what peer employers plan, which is useful when setting reskilling budgets and checking whether your own plans are out of line. The 40% planning staff reductions alongside 85% prioritising upskilling shows most firms intend to do both at once, so workforce plans need explicit rules on who is retrained and who exits. The 11-in-100 workers unlikely to get training is the group where reputational and policy risk will sit.
Summary based on the full text. Read the original for the full argument and data.Open PDF on reports.weforum.org