How Will The Job Market Change in The Future

The world around us is changing rapidly, with an increasing rate of technological change coupled with socio-economic and political unrest across the globe. One of the areas that affect the youth of today directly is how the job market will change in the next few decades.

This topic is widely discussed in the media and in studies and surveys to help educators and students to equip them for this future. However, as T. Haak highlights in his paper titled: “Trends in Future Jobs” (Haak,2017)², the future is difficult to predict. His view is that technology is developing so fast that it is impossible to predict how our lives will change in the next two decades.

Nevertheless, there are notable trends in technology and society that can help us predict some elements of the future job market. G. Moran addresses a few of them in his article “These Will Be the Top Jobs in 2025 (And The Skills You’ll Need to Get Them)” (Moran, 2016)¹, where he reckons that the massive amounts of data that are being processed and the complexity of the software that is required will create jobs for astute software developers and data analysts. On the socio-economic front, it is clear that ageing populations worldwide will create many jobs in the caregiving sector of the market. The US Bureau for Labour Statistics expects jobs for Home Health Aides and Personal Care Aids to grown 47% and 39% respectively in the next decade (ref 4 – new), the highest of all their categories.

In contrast, the growth of Artificial Intelligence and other intelligent software applications is expected to have a significant negative impact on Office and Administrative Roles, while the traditional Manufacturing Sector is expected to reduce due to 3D printing and other localised manufacturing technologies. This is reported on in “The Future of Jobs – Employment Trends” (The Future of Jobs, n.d.)³, where it is also noted that women are over-represented in many of the categories that are expected to decline and under-represented in many of the growth categories, especially in high-tech industries. This can be seen as an opportunity for aspiring female students.

So where does it leave the young students of today? The most important part is to stay studying. Whether you are in a high-unemployment country like South Africa, or in a country with little unemployment like the USA, differentiation through education remains key to being relevant in the job market. Several authors, including T. Haak, points out that you should educate yourself in such a way that you always have options.

It is therefore clear that although the future job market is impossible to predict, the only way to improve your chances of success is through continuing to educate and train yourself, preferably in multiple disciplines.