The fastest growing (and declining) jobs over the next five years

The World Economic Forum just released its 2023 Future of Jobs Report. One of the key features is its predictions for the fastest growing and declining jobs globally. And it looks like over the next five years we’ll see a big uptick in AI and sustainability, while bank tellers and postal workers tumble.

Automation was a key focus of the report as were new technologies in relation to job losses. While new technologies would create 69 million new jobs globally, they would also result in 83 million jobs lost. This brings the net loss to 14 million jobs worldwide, or 2% of the global workforce.

It also found that AI may be more than a flash in the pan with estimates that 74.9% of companies globally will be using AI by 2027.

Job wins for sustainability and AI

But it was not all bad news, particularly for workers who enter or pivot into the right sectors. And according to the World Economic Forum, sustainability will be a big one.

“The highest amount of growth is expected to be in sectors that require green jobs and green skills: from specialists in sustainability to those working on green energy production, renewable energy sources, renewable energy engineers, solar energy installation,” Forum managing director Saadia Zahidi said.

“These are all areas that are likely to grow in line with the types of investments we’re seeing governments make and the incentives that they’re creating for companies to invest in those areas.”

Agriculture was also strongly in the mix.

“But when it comes to the largest absolute gains, the largest numbers of jobs being created, that is really going to be coming from education and from agriculture,” Zahidi said.

“When it comes to agricultural professionals, we’re expecting that agriculture equipment operators, graders and sorters are expected to see a 15 to 30% increase, leading to about an additional 4 million jobs.”

There was certainly some overlap here with LinkedIn’s 2o23 On The Rise job report.

Job losses for banks and postal services

Unfortunately, job decline will also be felt across roles that are automated, operate largely online, or are beginning to be handled by generative AI.

Bank tellers and postal clerks top the list, with data entry, record keeping and street vendors also making the list.

You can see the full list here:

Top 10 fastest growing jobs:

• AI and machine learning specialists
• Sustainability specialists
• Business intelligence analysts
• Information security analysts
• Fintech engineers
• Data analysts and scientists
• Robotics engineers
• Electrotechnology engineers
• Agricultural equipment operators
• Digital transformation specialists

Top 10 fastest declining jobs:

• Bank tellers and related clerks
• Postal service clerks
• Cashiers and ticket clerks
• Data entry clerks
• Administrative executive secretaries
• Material-recording and stock-keeping clerks
• Accounting, bookkeeping and payroll clerks
• Legislators and officials
• Statistical, finance and insurance clerks
• Door-to-door sales workers, news and street vendors and related workers