One in five jobs will fundamentally change by 2030, Future of Jobs Report shows

More than one in five jobs - 22 per cent - are expected to be fundamentally changed by 2030 as a result of technology change, the green transition, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty and demographic shifts. 

The 2025 Future of Jobs Report reinforces there is a critical and immediate need to reskill our workforces and workplaces to meet the significant national and global challenges ahead. 

The Australian Industry Group is the Australian partner for the global report which biennially measures and predicts changes to the employment market. 

"The report reveals a tangled mix of global drivers transforming jobs globally and in Australia, resulting in skill disruption, new and evolving skill demands, particularly in technology-related fields, and a substantial need for reskilling and upskilling", Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the Australian Industry Group, the national employer association, said.

"It demonstrates the importance of building the capability and size of Australia's workforce now and over the coming years.

"Sixty-three per cent of employers globally said skill gaps are the biggest barrier to business transformation. While they are making considerable effort to diversify, upskill and support their workforces, this must be complemented by effective public jobs and skills policies in the next five years. 

"That must include strategies to build talent for new and emerging roles; funding for, and provision of, broad reskilling and upskilling; and strategies to support diversity, equity and inclusion, and displaced and mature-aged workers."

Top jobs facing growth and loss

On current trends over the 2025-2030 period there will be a net growth of 7% of total employment, or 78 million jobs globally, representing both job creation and destruction.

Globally, frontline job roles are predicted to see the largest growth in absolute terms of volume. They include Farmworkers, Delivery Drivers, Construction Workers, Salespersons and Food Processing Workers. Care economy jobs and Education roles are also expected to grow significantly. They include Nursing Professionals, Social Work and Counselling Professionals and Personal Care Aides, as well as University, Higher and Secondary Education Teachers.

Technology-related jobs are the fastest-growing roles in percentage terms, with green and energy transition roles also fast-growing. Included are Big Data Specialists, Fintech Engineers, AI and Machine Learning Specialists and Software and Application Developers. Green roles include Autonomous and Electric Vehicle Specialists, Environmental Engineers and Renewable Energy Engineers. Clerical and secretarial workers are expected to see the largest decline in absolute numbers.

Top core skills and fastest growing skills

Over the 2025-2030 period, skill instability, caused by the global transformation drivers, indicates workers globally can expect 39% of their existing skill sets to be transformed or to become outdated.

Seven out of ten employers consider the most sought-after coreskill in 2025 to be analytical thinking. This is followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, as well as leadership and social influence. These skills reflect the value employers increasingly place on cognitive skills and working with others. However, the fastest-growingskills in 2025 are AI and big data, followed by networks and cyber security, and technology literacy.

Given these evolving global skill demands, the scale of workforce upskilling and reskilling expected to be needed remains significant.

Strategies to meet skill demands

With skill gaps the major barrier to business transformation globally, 85% of employers plan to prioritise upskilling their workforce as the main strategy over the 2025 to 2030 period. Major strategies also include employers expecting to hire staff with new skills and to reduce staff as they become less relevant.

As a response to AI, half of all employers plan to reorient their business to target new business opportunities created by AI. A majority of employers will reskill and upskill their existing workforce to better work alongside AI, while a similar percentage intend to hire new people with skills to design AI tools and enhancements appropriate for organisation-specific skills.

Supporting employee health and wellbeing is expected to be a top focus for talent attraction, while the potential for tapping into diverse talent pools - with women the priority group - to expand talent availability is recognised by a much greater share of employers than the last survey in 2023.

Public policies to support talent availability

Funding for - and provision of - reskilling and upskilling are the two public policies most favoured by employers globally to increase talent availability. A related measure - improvements to public education systems - is similarly favoured.

How Australia compares

A higher percentage of Australian employers than the global average expect broadening digital access to be the most transformative trend, suggesting greater pressure on the need for tech talent. Australian employers also place a higher rating on the impact of aging and declining working-age populations in shaping job transformation than employers globally.

The percentage of Australian employers identifying skill gaps in the local labour market as the major barrier to business transformation has increased since 2023. This increasing concern by Australian employers corresponds with these employers viewing the inability to attract talent to the industry as a key business challenge, and is higher than the global average.

Australian employers expect the fastest-growing roles to fit with the global trend. This includes AI and Machine Learning Specialists, Big Data Specialists, Data Analysts and Scientists and Sustainability Specialists. Declining roles are expected to include Clerical and Secretarial workers, also in line with global trends.

Australia is largely aligned with global peers on the most sought-after core skills - analytical thinking; resilience, flexibility and agility; leadership and social influence; and creative thinking, as well as the fastest-growing skills - AI and big data; networks and cyber security; and technology literacy.

However Australian employers differ in their priorities for solutions to skills gap issues. To address the increasing need for skilled talent, 45% of Australian employers favour changes to immigration laws to attract global talent, compared to a much lower global average of 26%. This suggests the need for migration to be better balanced with domestic skills supply through cross sector-coordinated planning, improving the identification of skills in demand, looking at regional needs and ensuring those with the right specialist skills are attracted.

Recognising the benefits of tapping into diverse talent pools and setting clear DEI goals is also a key part of talent strategies among employers in Australia, higher than the global average.

The Future of Jobs Report

The survey brings together the perspective of over 1,000 employers who collectively represent more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world. The survey examines how macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe.

Ai Group Centre for Education and Training collaborated with the WEF as the Australian survey partner for the report.

Link to full Future of Jobs report https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/

A comprehensive summary of the Future of Jobs Report is included in Ai Group snapshots of the global datasets, available here.

Media Enquiries:
Gemma Daley - 0418 148 821

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.