Page 44 - The Fourth Industrial Revolution

automated narrative generation, forecasts that by the mid-2020s, 90% of

news could be generated by an algorithm, most of it without any kind of
human intervention (apart from the design of the algorithm, of course). 24

In such a rapidly evolving working environment, the ability to anticipate
future employment trends and needs in terms of the knowledge and skills
required to adapt becomes even more critical for all stakeholders. These
trends vary by industry and geography, and so it is important to understand

the industry and country-specific outcomes of the fourth industrial
revolution.

In the Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, we asked the chief human resources
officers of today’s largest employers in 10 industries and 15 economies to
imagine the impact on employment, jobs and skills up to the year 2020. As

Figure 1 shows, survey respondents believe that complex problem solving,
social and systems skills will be far more in demand in 2020 when
compared to physical abilities or content skills. The report finds that the
next five years are a critical period of transition: the overall employment
outlook is flat but there is significant job churn within industries and skill

churn within most occupations. While wages and work-life balance are
expected to improve slightly for most occupations, job security is expected
to worsen in half of the industries surveyed. It is also clear that women and

men will be affected differently, potentially exacerbating gender inequality
(see Box A: Gender Gaps and the Fourth Industrial Revolution).

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