AI Resistant Jobs & Skills

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Even in the near term from 2026 through 2030 it is challenging to predict what jobs will be AI resistant and what skills will be the most important to have. The World Economic Forum's "Future of Jobs Report 2025" (Report) from January of 2025 contains some of the best world-wide data. The Report can be downloaded from the World Economic Forum's website: https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2025/ .

The Report, "...brings together the perspective of over 1,000 leading global employers—collectively representing more than 14 million workers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies from around the world—to examine how these macrotrends impact jobs and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers plan to embark on in response, across the 2025 to 2030 timeframe." Anyone thinking about their career journey should download the report, review it, and think carefully about the education and career strategy. It is important to emphasize that the Report's data is from global sources. As such, it may not be the most accurate for an individual country. The United States and China are leading the world in the creation, adoption and adaptation of AI and robotics. Thus, one can imagine that in these two countries AI and Robotics will be having their greatest impact. 

As the Report states, "Advancements in technologies, particularly AI and information processing (86%); robotics and automation (58%); and energy generation, storage and distribution (41%), are also expected to be transformative." (Percentages are the percent of world-wide employers believing this.)

The Report says, "Extrapolating from the predictions shared by Future of Jobs Survey respondents, on current trends over the 2025 to 2030 period job creation and destruction due to structural labour-market transformation will amount to 22% of today’s total jobs. This is expected to entail the creation

of new jobs equivalent to 14% of today’s total employment, amounting to 170 million jobs.

However, this growth is expected to be offset by the displacement of the equivalent of 8% (or 92

million) of current jobs, resulting in net growth of 7% of total employment, or 78 million jobs."

The Report states, "Frontline job roles are predicted to see the largest growth in absolute terms of volume and include Farmworkers, Delivery Drivers, Construction Workers, Salespersons, and Food

Processing Workers. Care economy jobs, such as Nursing Professionals, Social Work and

Counselling Professionals and Personal Care Aides are also expected to grow significantly

over the next five years, alongside Education roles such as Tertiary and Secondary Education

Teachers. Technology-related roles are the fastest growing jobs in percentage terms, including

Big Data Specialists, Fintech Engineers, AI and Machine Learning Specialists and Software

and Application Developers. Green and energy transition roles, including Autonomous and

Electric Vehicle Specialists, Environmental Engineers, and Renewable Energy Engineers,

also feature within the top fastest-growing roles. Clerical and Secretarial Workers – including

Cashiers and Ticket Clerks, and Administrative Assistants and Executive Secretaries – are

expected to see the largest decline in absolute numbers. Similarly, businesses expect the

fastest-declining roles to include Postal Service Clerks, Bank Tellers and Data Entry Clerks."

According to the Report, "On average, workers can expect that two-fifths (39%) of their existing skill sets will be transformed or become outdated over the 2025-2030 period."

The Report finds, "Analytical thinking remains the most sought after core skill among employers, with seven out of 10 companies considering it as essential in 2025. This is followed by resilience, flexibility and agility, along with leadership and social influence. AI and big data top the list of fastest-growing skills, followed closely by networks and cybersecurity as well as technology literacy.

Complementing these technology-related skills, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility and agility,

along with curiosity and lifelong learning, are also expected to continue to rise in importance

over the 2025-2030 period. Conversely, manual dexterity, endurance and precision stand out

with notable net declines in skills demand, with 24% of respondents foreseeing a decrease in

their importance."

As a result the Report finds, "While global job numbers are projected to grow by 2030, existing and emerging skills differences between growing and declining roles could exacerbate existing skills gaps. The most prominent skills differentiating growing from declining jobs are anticipated to comprise resilience, flexibility and agility; resource management and operations; quality control;

programming and technological literacy. Given these evolving skill demands, the scale of

workforce upskilling and reskilling expected to be needed remains significant: if the world’s workforce

was made up of 100 people, 59 would need training by 2030. Of these, employers foresee that

29 could be upskilled in their current roles and 19 could be upskilled and redeployed elsewhere within their organization. However, 11 would be unlikely to receive the reskilling or upskilling needed, leaving their employment prospects increasingly at risk. Skill gaps are categorically considered the biggest barrier to business transformation by Future of Jobs Survey respondents, with 63% of employers identifying them as a major barrier over the 2025-

2030 period. Accordingly, 85% of employers surveyed plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce,

with 70% of employers expecting to hire staff with new skills, 40% planning to reduce staff as their

skills become less relevant, and 50% planning to transition staff from declining to growing roles.