KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM WEF JOBS RESET SUMMIT

This October, the World Economic Forum's Jobs Reset Summit called for businesses, governments, and NGOs alike to come together and create a better, more inclusive future of work from the chaos leftby the pandemic. We bring you a roundup of the key issues discussed

- Maia Jenkins

Last week, the World Economic Forum hosted the Jobs Reset Summit, a virtual event that brought together some of world’s leading thinkers, policymakers, decision-makers, and future-shapers to discuss how, as we emerge from the pandemic crisis, we can maximize human capital and harness rebuilding strategies to create more inclusive, sustainable jobs and a better future for all.

As we enter the final few months of a year marked by disruption, confusion, and uncertainty, the WEF Jobs Summit 2020 was a key milestone in the long process of fashioning a road map to recovery and offered a sobering but ultimately optimistic vision of where we need to go next. Across the course of the four-day summit, speakers touched on issues ranging from education, lifelong learning, leadership qualities, sustainability, and how to kick start a reskilling revolution in the wake of COVID-19.

Job creation has slowed as job destruction accelerates

Released in the same week, the WEF’s ‘Future of Jobs Report’ set the context for the summit and provided much data for discussion. One of the major changes to happen in 2020 is the shrinking gap between the rate of jobs created versus jobs destroyed. The report found that, by 2025, 85 million jobs may be “displaced” by machines and 97 million new jobs may emerge that are “more adapted to the new division of labor between humans, machines, and algorithms.” Compared to previous years’ predictions, job creation is slowing down while job destruction ramps up.