Over the past few days Adela Bulai and I went through two global reports that cover work and job information, statistics and trends from 2022 and 2023 and I want to share our discoveries with you, as I consider them to be relevant and important for the career conversation.
The Future of Jobs Survey published by the World Economic Forum comprises the data from 803 companies (more than 11.3 million employees, across 27 industries worldwide).
This report paints a picture that employers foresee a structural labour market churn of 23% of jobs in the next five years. It’s a mix of new jobs emerging and other jobs fading away.
Those who took part in the 2023 Future of Jobs Survey are seeing a higher-than-average churn in industries like Supply Chain, Transportation, Media, Entertainment, and Sports. On the flip side, Manufacturing, Retail, and Wholesale of Consumer Goods might see less churn.
Out of the 673 million jobs considered in this report, respondents anticipate 69 million new jobs to appear, while saying goodbye to 83 million positions.
That’s a drop of 14 million jobs, about 2% of current employment.
The jobs taking the biggest hit these days are the ones heavily impacted by technology and digitalization. Clerical and admin roles are at the top of the list for the fastest decline.
When we look at skills, analytical thinking is considered a core skill by more companies than any other skill, making up around 9% of the skills companies are after.
Right behind that is creative thinking, and self-efficacy skills like resilience, flexibility and agility, motivation, self-awareness, curiosity, and lifelong learning.
Dependability and attention to detail still matter, although they come in sixth after technological know-how. Rounding up the top 10 skills are two attitudes essential for working with others: empathy, active listening, leadership and social influence.
Moving on to the State of the Global Workplace report from Gallup, I discovered that after a drop during the pandemic, employee engagement is rising again, reaching a record-high 23%.
Good news!
According to the report, this means more employees found their work meaningful and felt connected to their team, manager and employer.
But here’s the flip side: there’s a significant group of employees quietly quitting.
Some are expressing things like:
“ I just don’t feel like there’s a lot of room for me to grow internally.”
“ It has happened many times that I have addressed things, that staff members have addressed things. Then nothing changes.”
“ I wish my manager was more present.”
Quiet quitting happens when someone psychologically disengages from work. Even if they are physically present or logged into their computer, they don’t know what to do or why it matters. They lack supportive bonds with their coworkers, boss or their organization.
Nearly 6 in 10 employees fell into this category.
When you add up these disengaged employees with those actively tuning out, it adds up to 8.8 trillion dollar loss for the global economy.
When it comes to daily stress, 44% of employees said they experienced high stress levels the previous day. This trend of elevated stress began almost a decade earlier and continues.
The Gallup analysis found that when people are engaged at work, they report significantly lower stress in their lives.
Another interesting insight across the countries and areas surveyed is that 51% of currently employed workers said they are watching for or actively seeking a new job.
Money’s a big motivator when it comes to what people want in their next job, as well as improved wellbeing and opportunities to grow and develop.
Engaged employees want a 31% pay increase to consider taking a job with a different company, while disengaged employees want a 22% pay increase to change their job.
Some of the results from the Gallup report match the results our career survey, which gives me and Adela Bulai even more fuel to make a difference in people’s professional lives through our program “Career with purpose” (“Carieră cu sens”).
If you want to take ownership of your career journey and align it with your values, mission and purpose, join our program and start building a fulfilling career from the inside out.
