The robot apocalypse. The fourth industrial revolution. The end of jobs. If you’ve missed the endless litany of future of work headlines and prognostications, you deserve an award for staying above the work revolution fray.
For the rest of us, the future of work is an ongoing point of contention, best informed by the data. And we love data at WorkMarket, an ADP Company.
It's important to remain up to date with the latest numbers and data that are shaping the way work is completed. We’ve rounded up the 15 awesome labor force insights to inform and define work, and how you shape work, in the coming years.
1) 49% of millennials are slated to quit their jobs within the next two years.
That's acoording to Deloitte's latest Global Millennial Survey. The lifetime employment contract is essentially broken as demographic shifts are reorienting the office ecosystem. This matters because....
2) 75.4 million millennials now outnumber 74.9 baby boomers.
Thanks to the US Census Bureau, we now know millennials represent the majority of the nation’s workforce. With these sheer numbers, millennial preferences will dictate the world of work for years to come.
3) 50% of US workers will be freelancing.
Given the current pace of growth, the Freelancers Union predicts that over 50% of US workers will be freelancing by 2027. We predict that these 8 industries will be most disrupted by freelancers and on-demand workers.
4) 94% of global business leaders are sourcing contractors from online digital job platforms.
This eye-popping stat is taken straight from analyses by recruiter Robert Half. Side note: a further survey of over 3,800 businesses around the world found global employers are aiming for almost a third (66:34 split) of their employees to be temporary workers in four years’ time.
5) 1.5 million fewer workers will be college educated by 2020.
And another 6 million fewer workers will hold a high school diploma, as predicted by McKinsey. Changes in education and skills matching will be important variables conributing to the expansion of the gig economy.
While we're on the topic of education....
6) Nearly two-thirds of primary school children will hold jobs that don't yet exist.
The World Economic Forum reports disruptive changes to business models will have a profound impact on the employment landscape over the coming years. Pundits have upheld education reform as the key to navigating the future of work and bridging the education gap. The persistent questions are how and what to teach.
7) Demand for social and emotional skills will expand by 26% in the US.
McKinsey analyzed the 25 most common skills, finding that by 2030, demand for technological, social and emotional, and higher cognitive skills will rise by 2030. These changes will require workers everywhere to deepen their existing skill sets or acquire new ones. Companies, too, will need to rethink how work is organized within their organizations.
8) 133 million new jobs will develop by 2022 through AI.
The World Economic Forum also predicts that among these 133 million new jobs, data analysts and scientists, AI and machine learning specialists, and general and operations managers will emerge as the top three roles.
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9) 400-800 million jobs could be displaced by 2030.
Building on their January 2017 report on automation, McKinsey Global Institute’s latest report assesses the number and types of jobs that might be created under different scenarios through 2030 and compares that to the jobs that could be lost to automation. Essentially new work opportunities will come, but will likely need reskilling.
10) A Fortune 2000 company will have no employees outside the C-suite.
That’s a prediction from consulting giant Accenture, which produces an annual Technology Vision Report each year exploring the biggest technology trends impacting today’s businesses. The stat is also cited by the WSJ in “The End of Employees,” which further examines the move by some of today’s biggest companies toward a more flexible and virtualized workforce.
11) 40% of today's Fortune 500 companies won't exist in 2025.
Another number coming from Deloitte. Moreover, 52% of Fortune 500 companies from 2000 are no longer with us. Scroll through the archives and it’s clear which (former) industry leaders have failed to keep up with the times. This is corporate Darwinism at its finest — adapt or die.
12) 40% of finance executives plan to make workforce and analytics investments.
More data from Deloitte, this taken from their report, "CFO Signals: What North America’s top finance executives are thinking — and doing." That may mean investing in and integrating technologies that not only make agile workforce management attainable, but also completely visible across all lines of business. That goes hand-in-hand with transitioning from a traditional work model.
13) 88% of companies believe in the importance of redesigning their work model.
This comes from Deloitte's 2017 Global Human Capital Trends report. The conclusion? As digital transforms the business landscape, the successful organizations of the future will likely be those that can move faster, adapt more quickly, learn more rapidly, and embrace dynamic career demands.
14) Coworking memberships will balloon to 3.8 million by 2020.
The move towards coworking and flexible office has begun to take hold, with the number of coworking memberships slated to balloon to 3.8 million by 2020 and 5.1 million by 2022, according to AllWork. Furthermore, the global market value of flexible workspaces is estimated at an approximate $26 billion. Remote work is here to stay.
15) By 2030, a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people will exist.
It’s probably the most repeated prognostication of the year (and something we've hinted at above): Robots are eventually going to take your job, and probably sooner than you think. As it turns out, that would be the wrong thinking, and by a long shot. Korn Ferry predicts a coming global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people, resulting in the ballpark of $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues.
All in, firms need to prepare for a whirlwind of change. The world of work is fast moving and ever evolving. What does your future workforce look like?
