Published in January by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Future of Jobs Report 2025 sets out across some 300 pages its predictions for macro-level shifts in the landscape of work. Insights draw on data from over 1,000 employers comprising 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies.
Here, we present the macro trends drawn from the WEF report along with eight principles to help leaders navigate the challenges ahead.
WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025: Key takeaways
The WEF Future of Jobs 2025 report highlights labour market and workplace challenges.
Inevitably, technology is a factor, not least artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and automation in general. On average, workers will see two-fifths of their skillsets transformed or made redundant. Tech roles will grow; administration jobs will decline.
Economic slowdown and the cost of living will continue to plague organisations and individual lives. Around 1.6 million jobs will be lost to lower growth, whilst demand for creative thinking and resilience will rise.
Climate change remains a force within the workplace, with employers expecting to invest further in green solutions in the coming years. The burden of stewardship for the environment will only rise.
Higher-income economies are experiencing aging and declining working-age populations, while in lower-income economies working-age populations are expanding. These demographic shifts call for skills development and fresh employment practices.
Geoeconomic fragmentation and geopolitical tensions continue to shape workplace strategies, with companies now both offshoring and re-shoring their operations. The call for network skills is on the rise; similarly, leadership and other human-centred skills are in demand.
Skills on the rise
As these macro shifts unfold, roles that grow versus decline will be characterised by resilience, flexibility and agility. Resource management, operations and quality control will be paramount, along with programming and technological literacy.
A perfect storm
Predictions set out in the WEF report are an invitation to make a difference. They also present a warning about our duty of care to society beyond the walls of the organisation.
With so many shifts occurring at the same time, the future of jobs represents a perfect storm for managers and their organisations. For years we have talked, often glibly, about how change is the only constant; yet our capacity to introduce new practices often remains limited.
Making sense of the future of work – eight principles
The WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025 makes for sober reading, revealing the complex transformation required to manage technological, societal and economic disruption.
The coming years will be a test of leadership at all levels within all our organisations. The eight principles below will help us make sense of and navigate this challenge with confidence.
1. Embrace responsibility
Work culture and practice typically revolve around internal questions of performance and results. Management thinking is similarly directed toward the bottom line, customers and (sometimes) employees. For decades, commerce largely has operated in isolation from society, a law unto itself.
The WEF report makes clear how the decisions and actions of managers and their teams affect the fortunes of the world and the experiences of individuals within society. We must recognise our immense power through our various roles at work – and use it responsibly.
2. Accept limitations
Work affords many of us the capacity to shape the world in which we live. But we must consider that society is a complex organism where the outcomes of any action are shaped by what happens elsewhere within the system.
Overweening belief in ourselves can compel us to plough ahead with poor ideas that leave in their wake devastation, usually for others. We must be realistic about what we can achieve, and not be seduced by the visions of our hubris.
3. Think well
We can make do with fairly basic thinking when we view business as a means to make money by selling products and services to customers, blind to wider consequences.
However, in a world where we have power, undeniably limited, to shape our complex society, we must bring imagination, see dependencies and explore cause and effect. Managers have a duty be both thoughtful and intelligent.
4. Question values
Despite much tub-thumping about corporate social responsibility (CSR), profit and efficiency routinely motivate decision-making. When push comes to shove, managers’ actions align with these longstanding motives, which many find hard to escape.
As AI and related technologies shape the future economy and labour markets, the maximisation of profit and efficiency will be a poor guide. Society-oriented values must support our thinking.
5. Invest for the long term
Whilst managers have to grapple at pace with the WEF’s predictions, investments in new technologies, climate change, skills development, and geoeconomic fragmentation will yield returns over the long term.
Alongside holistic thinking, we must take seriously the call for long-term planning; this challenges quarterly financial returns and other corporate norms. Whilst short-term outcomes matter, these cannot be secured at a cost to our future social systems.
6. Champion purpose
Talk of purpose often causes managers to roll their eyes: please, can we not just get back to the real business of the day? Team members like the idea of purpose, yet remain cynical, seeing this as yet another leadership ruse.
Still, when firms are caught in a perfect storm of shifts they cannot control, viewing a single and worthwhile ambition eases decisions and day-to-day work. Purpose shields managers and organisations from the relentless buffeting of a chaotic environment.
7. Change course
A further benefit of clear purpose is that it affords an anchor for the workplace. At the same time, it grants permission for everyone to invite questions, explore new directions and embark on novel paths.
Whilst the WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025 aims to bring coherence to the future, nothing is certain. Rudderless action is pointless; and yet so is action that remains doggedly tethered to ends that, for reasons beyond our control, have become irrelevant.
8. Harness relationships
The transformation called for by the future of jobs cannot be delivered from a boardroom, during an off-site or from the corner office. The only way to shift the organisation – a complex human system within a complex human society – is to involve people affected by the change.
Strong workplace relationships help managers secure commitment and action. Relationships are also a leadership asset that enables good dialogue, encourages fresh ideas and, crucially, calms the workforce during change.
Duty to the future
The WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025 shows the challenges facing organisations and their members. At the same time, the Forum’s insights reveal both an opportunity and a duty to create a better world.
The eight principles here will allow us as managers and team members to make sense of this overwhelming complexity; they will also serve as a guide for confident and worthwhile action.
