Job Crunch

Doesn’t it feel like a season of wars? Every other nation seems to be at it. In today’s dystopian world, reality seems stranger and more cruel than fiction. Had we ever imagined that butchering babies and gangraping prisoners wouldn’t be considered war crimes? That while a genocide continues to decimate entire generations in one part of the world orchestrated by a tiny nation, life would be business as usual in others. While climate change and erratic weather cycles destroy lives and create shortage of resources, an elite group of people would continue to become modern-day oligarchs. There is nothing predictable about the world today and going forward, one thing we can be sure of — you can be sure of nothing.

You know that job that you hate, the boss that you don’t like, the office that expects you to actually work — that "job" you took for granted may not even exist in the future. Even today, there are hundreds of experienced mid-and-senior level professionals rendered jobless due to business vagaries, Covid-19 repercussions, and technological disruptions. They too had thought their employment would last forever but the ongoing work shifts have been unforgiving. India’s educated unemployed class is massive with almost 16 million belonging to middle income households, as per Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) in 2022. Latest CMIE data shows unemployment at 7 per cent as against 5.6 per cent as recorded by the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). As per a report by Unstop, which surveyed 30,000 Gen Z professionals and 700 HR leaders, 83 per cent of engineering students graduated without an offer of a job or internship. According to the report, almost 50 per cent of MBA graduates from India’s B-schools faced the same plight. The job market is getting exceedingly challenging with even top graduates failing to land an offer.

Echoing this trend, billionaire Nikhil Kamath highlighted the futility of four-year college degrees earlier this week. Basing his observation on the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) “The Future of Jobs report 2025” that was released in January this year, Kamath warned that 92 million jobs would be displaced in five years while 170 million new ones will be created. As per the WEF report, the 78 million new jobs don’t necessarily bode well for those who refuse or fail to upskill themselves. These new jobs will come by destroying many in their wake.

Strongest demand for jobs is expected in sectors such as care, education, technology, and renewable energy while several age-old professions will be rendered obsolete due to the inculcation of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). WEF noted that “Technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts, and the green transition – individually and in combination — are among the major drivers expected to shape and transform the global labour market by 2030”.

One of the biggest threats to jobs is AI that while making work easier is also reducing dependency on human resources. Almost 50 per cent of the companies aim to use AI to their business advantage while 41 per cent expect to reduce workforce strength due to it. Job growth will happen across tech, data, AI, and renewable energy sectors as also in essential jobs such as caregivers, agricultural workers, delivery workers, and educators. Any job that can be automated with minimal human intervention or supervision stands to vanish. Graphic design and administrative jobs may cease to exist.

So, how should workers navigate employment uncertainties? Adapt, compromise, upskill/reskill. Staying rigid and inflexible can be an Achilles’ heel. Agility and ability to bridge the skills gap will hold workers in good stead. Almost 40 per cent of the expertise needed by 2030 will be new, necessitating both a technical and personal upgrade for all workers. About 59 per cent of the global workforce will require vocational training to be future job-ready. Employers will seek better productivity, reliance, and efficiency, and will bring on technology to achieve that end. All roles that can be automated will remain vulnerable. Nations, businesses, and educational institutes will have to work consciously and conscientiously to ensure that the youth not only remain employable but also have access to jobs. Because who knows, that job that you take for granted today, may not even exist tomorrow.

The writer is an author and media entrepreneur. Views expressed are personal