Though some predictions about automation paint a bleak future, others offer a more optimistic outlook, predicting that technological innovations will create millions of jobs.
The World Economic Forum‘s latest Future of Jobs report, which identifies trends across 20 economies in 12 industry sectors, suggests that between 2018 and 2022, 75 million current job roles may be displaced by machines and algorithms. But 133 million new jobs will likely emerge during that same period.
The types of jobs that will be created and eliminated depend on the industry and the automation, robotization, and digitization they adopt, write Vesselina Ratcheva and Alexander Leopold, the project leads of the report. 42% of task hours will be performed by machines and algorithms.
The shifting division of labor will also affect job creation and elimination, according to Ratcheva and Leopold. Today, 71% of total task hours across each industry profiled in the report are performed by humans, compared to 29% performed by machines or algorithms. But by 2022, the researchers predict that 58% of task hours will be performed by humans and 42% will be performed by machines and algorithms.
For example, by 2022, more than half of an organization’s data processing and information search tasks—and even some reasoning, decision-making, and administrative tasks—will be performed by machines.
According to the report, here are the top 10 declining roles for 2022:
- Data Entry Clerk
- Accounting, Bookkeeping, and Payroll Clerks
- Administrative and Executive Secretaries
- Assembly and Factory Workers
- Client Information and Customer Service Workers
- Business Services and Administration Managers
- Accountants and Auditors
- Material-Recording and Stock-Keeping Clerks
- General and Operations Managers
- Postal Service Clerks
But roles based on technological innovation, like software and applications developers, and roles requiring distinctly “human” traits, like sales professionals, are expected to grow in the coming years. According the report, here are the top 10 emerging jobs for 2022:
- Data Analysts and Scientists
- AI and Machine Learning Specialists
- General and Operations Managers
- Software and Applications Developers and Analysts
- Sales and Marketing Professionals
- Big Data Specialists
- Digital Transformation Specialists
- New Technology Specialists
- Organizational Development Specialists
- Information Technology Services
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