/dq/media/agency_attachments/UPxQAOdkwhCk8EYzqyvs.png)
/dq/media/media_files/2025/09/05/dq-728x90-banner-2025-09-05-12-31-09.jpg)
Follow Us/dq/media/media_files/2025/08/20/ai-and-upskilling-2025-08-20-14-07-04.jpg)
The Future of Jobs Report 2025 summarises the views of more than 1,000 major employers around the world - representing a total of over 14 million employees in 22 industry clusters and 55 economies worldwide- to analyse how these macro trends will affect work and skills, and the workforce transformation strategies employers will pursue in response, over the 2025 to 2030 period. The facts speak for themselves: the working world is evolving rapidly, and upskilling is no longer a luxury but the strategy that is most crucial in terms of remaining relevant.
According to employers, AI and big data take the leading positions in the list of the most rapidly growing skills, with networks, cybersecurity, and technology literacy coming in second, third, and fourth, respectively. On top of these technical skills, creativity, resilience, flexibility, and lifelong learning have become more and more important. They are the skills which enable employees to adjust to change, become innovative, and survive in uncertain conditions.
In the meantime, job opportunities requiring traditional skills like manual dexterity, endurance, and routine precision will become more susceptible to automation. This shows a growing disparity between the jobs that continue to expand and those that continue to contract, and the most powerful differentiators are technological literacy and problem-solving.
The urgent need for reskilling for green jobs and sustainability skills
The training scale is of a great magnitude. Assuming that the world workforce is a population of 100 individuals, 59 of them would require training of some kind by 2030. Of these, 29 in total may be upskilled into their existing jobs, 19 might be retrained and redeployed to other jobs, and 11 might experience decreased employment opportunities in the absence of reskilling support. A skills shortage is currently considered the most significant obstacle to business change, and two-thirds of employers mentioned it as one of the greatest problems in the next 10 years.
According to the Future of Jobs Report 2025 survey, employers are planning to act. Three out of every four report that they will focus on upskilling the workforce. Two-thirds of them plan to recruit workers who possess new skills, and one out of four of them expect to lay off workers whose skills are becoming obsolete. One-half of all employers plan to move workers out of declining to growing positions. As Satya Nadella of Microsoft recently said on LinkedIn, “The best productivity strategy is not just deploying AI, it’s empowering every employee with the right skills for the AI age.”
Green jobs and sustainability skills: What is the future?
As the adoption of AI is transforming industries, there is another wave of change that is approaching with force: the emergence of green jobs and sustainability skills. Due to the migration of companies to achieve global climate goals and implement business models with a green approach, the demand for green skills is growing faster. There will be a high demand for workers who have knowledge in fields like renewable energy systems, sustainable supply chains, carbon management, environmental reporting, and circular economy practices.
Such jobs are no longer niche jobs. Rather, sustainability is moving towards a mainstream source of competitiveness. Employers, small and large, in the financial sector, and the manufacturing sector, are seeking talent that can help them not only overcome the digital disruption but also achieve their sustainability objectives. Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, highlighted this trend on X, observing: “The next Silicon Valley isn’t just digital, it’s green. Innovation will come from solving our sustainability challenges.”
Along with technical and green skills, firms are also attaching value to employee well-being, career development and inclusion as part of attracting talent. As per the report, 64% of employers say they will concentrate on the health and well-being of employees as a talent acquisition strategy in a competitive market. In the meantime, reskilling programs, career advancement opportunities and diversity, equity and inclusion programs are on the rise. The pace of the adoption of DEI strategies has increased significantly, with 83% of employers saying that there are initiatives in place, an extremely steep increase over only two years.
The inclusion commitment is also practical: accessing a wide range of talent pools around the globe gives business organisations a broader pool of skills at a time of acute skills shortages. Employers are not only competing to attract talent, but they are also redefining internal practices to attract and retain talent.
Wages, AI, and preparing for the future
Most employers project that by 203,0 they will devote a larger portion of their revenue to wages as they seek to keep rare talent. Meanwhile, 55 per cent of businesses intend to re-strategise their business processes to accommodate AI, two-thirds of businesses are recruiting AI-specifically, and 40 per cent of businesses are contemplating laying off workers in sectors that can be automated by AI.
However, as AI will push a few positions out of employment, sustainability will generate jobs. The labour market of the decade will be characterised by this twofold change:e, AI and green jobs. Employees who combine digital competence and sustainability skills will be in the best position to operate in the future.
Future outlook
One thing is certain: the next five years will demand an upskilling effort like never before, according to the report. The current jobs are being transformed by AI-driven change, and completely new jobs are being created by green transformation. Collectively, these dynamics are creating the conditions of what is being described as the next big upskilling wave. To leave no one behind, workers, employers, and policymakers will all be forced to act fast.
People who invest in people (by empowering them with digital skills and green skills) will not only make the transition but will be at the forefront. The jobs to come will belong to the flexible and the skilled, but most importantly, to those who are planning now the future they will encounter in 2030.