Five trends that will change the world of professions

The disappearance of old and the emergence of new professions is an objective process that is regularly accelerated. Textbook examples are the exit from the market of paging companies, video and DVD rental offices, and the reduction in the number of points of sale of air and railway tickets. And this list can be continued for a long time, and this is a consequence of the development of only one of the many end-to-end technologies - data transmission systems.

The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs report predicts that 85 million existing jobs will disappear by 2025. However, they will be replaced by 97 million new ones.

Let's consider under the influence of what trends professions will be transformed and how.

The CORONAVIRUS pandemic, which began two years ago, exposed many of the problems of society and the economy. The World HEALTH Organization officially declared the start of a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Due to the strict quarantine measures adopted by the governments of most countries, many technological and commercial communications have been disrupted. Not all organizations and employees managed to adapt to the new conditions. Those who succeeded had to radically change the production algorithms.

Following the results of two years, some factors provoked by the pandemic emerged and took shape.

The first factor is remote work . In order to avoid downtime, most organizations that have had the opportunity to transfer employees to a remote format have done so as soon as possible. In that period, specialists who had sufficient qualifications to ensure such a transition were in great demand. In addition, in order to control the quality of remote work, the burden on organizations providing proctoring services has increased.

With the onset of covid relief, many employers have realized the benefits of working away from the office: the ability to use less space, reduce the load on office equipment, the possibility of directing time saved on transport trips to solve production problems. All this led to a decrease in demand for maintenance and technical staff of office buildings, for the services of realtors involved in the lease of business premises. The workload on transport workers and gas station operators has slightly decreased.

There was an increased demand for individual employees. Among them are medical workers, psychologists, employees of food and medicine delivery services.

Remote work eliminates certain disproportions in the labor market. If earlier living in a large city or its environs was a competitive advantage for many, now it is gradually ceasing to be such. Electronic offices equalized the rights of workers from megacities and small towns. This emerging trend could have significant implications.

The lack of “attachment” of workers to the office reduces the value of living in a big city and increases the popularity of more environmentally friendly housing options, in particular country houses. In advanced economies, the process of suburbanization—the movement of people from large cities to the suburbs—began in the middle of the 20th century. In this regard, specialists involved in the design and maintenance of cottage settlements will be in demand. The pandemic catalyzed this process. San Francisco saw a 91% increase in vacancy in 2020, 45% in Edinburgh, 32% in London and 27% in Berlin, according to the McKinsey Global Institute report The Future of Work Post-COVID-19. “Housing rents in the United States show a similar pattern, with people moving to the suburbs and small towns and away from urban centers.

The trend towards a gradual transition to remote work will intensify. In developed countries, the potential remains to transfer employees to remote and mixed work formats. Thus, 26% of employees in the UK are ready to switch to a new schedule with three to five remote days, in Germany - 24%, in the usa and Japan - 22% each.

The second factor is adaptability . The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of quickly responding to challenges from outside and managing their consequences. We are talking not only about specialists responsible for the smooth functioning of electronic offices, but also those who provide a “soft” way out of the pandemic: strategic and tactical managers, crisis managers, sales managers (including aggressive ones).