Is digital transformation threatening our jobs? Yes, it is. Is the situation hopeless? No. Not at all. Digitization is happening. And Covid-19 crisis proved to bring a faster job market disruption. Most of the jobs are shifting and being automated. But the total number of jobs destroyed will be surpassed by the number of jobs created. According to the Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, there will be 85 million displaced jobs by 2025. Yet, 97 million new ones will emerge. Along with the market disruption, Covid-19 has widened the skills gap. Employees are lagging behind the skills the new job market is starting to require. Employees in the low-paying sectors are the ones that got hit most during the pandemic. The prognosis is that their jobs will be the first to be switched to automation. Workers need to be upskilled and reskilled. And it needs to happen fast to fulfill the new job requirements. The window of opportunity is narrowing. We need a more skilled, better-equipped workforce for the future. But how to close the gap? Who needs to train the workers? As it turns out, everyone has a role. Employers need to train their employees. Workers need to start learning by themselves. Mostly online. The public sector has a role too. And it is crucial. It needs to provide more opportunities for upskilling and reskilling the workforce. The world of work is changing fast. We are unable to stop it, and we don’t need to. Innovation is essential to humans. What we can do is embrace this change and prepare for it. Now.
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