Future of Jobs Report 2025

78 million additional jobs by 2030. This figure from the Future of Jobs Report 2025 sounds reassuring at first.

But it tells only half the story.

Behind the positive balance, the World Economic Forum calculates approximately 170 million new jobs and 92 million displaced jobs. Together, this represents structural change equivalent to around 22% of the formal employment covered today.

The key message is therefore not: “There will be enough new jobs.” It is closer to: A great many people will need to move between old and new tasks.

This is precisely where the report’s value lies for the Future Skills debate.

1. The future is not only about AI jobs

The report examines five major labour-market drivers: technological change, the green transition, demographic shifts, geoeconomic fragmentation and economic uncertainty.

Technology plays a particularly strong role. In percentage terms, Big Data Specialists, FinTech Engineers and AI and Machine Learning Specialists are among the fastest-growing roles.

But the overall picture is much broader. In absolute numbers, the report also expects particularly strong employment growth in agriculture, delivery services, construction, sales and food processing. Growing roles in care, social work and education add to this picture.

This is an important correction to a common image of the future: tomorrow’s workforce will not consist solely of programmers and AI specialists. Technological change intersects with demographics, care provision, infrastructure and society’s fundamental needs.

For orientation, it is therefore less helpful to ask: “Which individual profession is future-proof?” A more useful question is: Which tasks are growing—and which abilities can transfer between different fields of work?

2. A more technological world of work does not make human abilities disappear

On skills, the report presents a striking dual picture.

AI and Big Data lead the list of skills that employers expect to grow particularly strongly in importance by 2030. Networks and cybersecurity, along with technological literacy, are also gaining significantly.

At the same time, analytical thinking remains today’s most important core skill: around seven in ten surveyed companies describe it as essential. Next come resilience, flexibility and agility, followed by leadership and social influence. Creative thinking, curiosity and lifelong learning are also becoming more important.

In our view, this matters more than the common simplification of “technical skills versus soft skills”.

The future apparently does not demand either technology or human abilities. It increasingly demands combinations: understanding technology, assessing information, structuring problems, handling uncertainty, collaborating with others and continuing to learn.

However, caution is needed: employers considering a human ability important does not automatically mean that this ability is “AI-proof”. Above all, the report measures expected demand for skills —not the technical irreplaceability of humans.

3. The hardest Future Skills question is not “Which?” but “How?”

Perhaps the most important figure for the Future Skills Institut is therefore not 170 million, but 39%.

According to the surveyed employers, this is the proportion of workers’ core skills that could change by 2030.

The report makes this scale even more tangible: if the global workforce consisted of 100 people, by 2030 59 would need upskilling or reskilling. Employers expect 29 could be upskilled within their current roles and 19 could move into other roles. For 11, the necessary training would probably be inaccessible.

Accordingly, 63% of employers identify skills gaps as the biggest barrier to their transformation. 85% plan to upskill employees; 70% intend to hire people with new skills, and around half plan to move employees from declining into growing roles.

For us, this is where the real development question begins.

A list of important Future Skills does not yet change a person. Between “This skill is becoming more important” and “I can actually use it in my everyday life” lie time, energy, motivation, learning opportunities, feedback, suitable tasks and individual circumstances.

This is precisely why creating competency models is not enough. We must also understand how development can realistically succeed —in small steps, within people’s life and work contexts, and with room for adjustment.

4. The report looks at employability—we must also consider the ability to live well

The Future of Jobs Report is an important data point for us. But it deliberately addresses a particular question: What jobs, skills and workforce strategies do major employers anticipate?

That is not the same as the broader question: What abilities do people need for a good life amid change?

A skill can be in strong demand in the labour market while covering only part of human agency. Conversely, abilities such as self-regulation, building relationships, finding meaning or navigating major life transitions can be enormously important to an individual without topping an employer survey.

We therefore see labour-market data as one perspective among several.

JobRadar 2040 builds on this and asks further: what new tasks and responsibilities might emerge for people as technologies take over more of today’s activities?

Lebensfähig 2040 asks the second question: what sustains a good life if paid work eventually provides less income, structure, recognition, social contact or meaning?

For us, Future Skills are therefore more than qualifications for the next job. They should help people navigate transitions and continue shaping their lives under changed conditions.

What we take from this

The Future of Jobs Report 2025 does not provide a map on which we simply need to mark the right future occupation.

Its stronger finding is: The labour market is becoming more fluid—and the capacity to develop is therefore becoming more important in itself.

People will need to use new technologies, relinquish tasks, take on new ones, update knowledge and potentially move between roles several times.

This also changes our perspective on Future Skills.

The decisive ability may not be the one ranked first on a list today. Valuable abilities help people retain their capacity to act even when the rankings change again.

If a large proportion of my professional requirements changed over the next few years, which ability would help me not just secure a particular job, but navigate several possible transitions well?

Context: This 3-Minute Insight summarises selected findings from the Future of Jobs Report 2025 in our own words and connects them with the Future Skills Institut’s research questions. The report’s figures are not certain predictions. They rely substantially on major employers’ expectations and plans, surveyed from May to September 2024, and are combined with ILO data for parts of the employment projections. The survey focuses on larger companies and formal employment; small businesses and the informal sector explicitly fall outside its main scope. Global aggregates therefore cannot be applied directly to individual countries, industries, occupations or personal career decisions. Connections to human agency, JobRadar 2040 and Lebensfähig 2040 are FSI interpretations.

Source: World Economic Forum (2025): Future of Jobs Report 2025, published 7 January 2025. Further information: Official report page ↗ · Key Findings ↗ · Skills Outlook ↗ · Methodology ↗