Successfully combining mathematical and interpersonal skills will be the gateway to many rewarding opportunities.Along with mathematical ability, soft skills, like empathy and cooperation, will be crucial as people move between different roles and projects. On the other hand, opportunities for single-skillset jobs will decline.

New Skills For New Economies

“Without urgent and targeted action today, to manage the near-term transition and build a workforce with future-proof skills, governments will have to cope with ever-growing unemployment and inequality, and businesses with a shrinking consumer base.” Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Automation will do away with most existing jobs but it will also create new ones. Retraining in a massive scale will be necessary. In particular, manual laborers are at risk of unemployment in the absence of retraining, as the new jobs will be in more specialized areas. Governments and employers in every sector are being urged to retrain and re-skill workers to avoid a crisis.

The Future Work Market

<img alt="World Economic Forum" src="https://www.weforum.org/assets/logo-b66768797e3f785791fd157ffc33c27eeca6d5100b7f34d418f50d206f1a8004.svg" width="78" height="48"><figure><picture><img alt="Matteo Achilli (R) works with one of his assistants in his office in Formello, north of Rome July 25, 2013. Achilli, dubbed the Italian Zuckerberg by Panorama Economy, is the 21-year-old founder of Egomnia, a social network created to match companies looking to hire graduate job seekers. According to Achilli, Egomnia, which was founded in February 2012, has around 100,000 users, about 600 multinational companies in Italy as clients and a 2013 sales volume of about 500,000 euros. Picture taken July 25, 2013" src="https://assets.weforum.org/article/image/large_Uyhk7hCjXuFy9kjI0or931fdfvqdhkh136KpZGfNK7w.jpg" width="743" height="321"></picture><figcaption dir="auto">Could a robot do your job?
Image: REUTERS/Tony Gentile</figcaption></figure><div>02 Sep 2016</div>Could a robot do your job? Millions of people who didn’t see automation coming will soon find out the painful way. The answer is a resounding yes.The World Economic Forum’s <a href="http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs.pdf" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">Future of Jobs </a>study predicts that 5 million jobs will be lost before 2020 as artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology and other socio-economic factors replace the need for human workers. <figure><picture><img alt=" " srcset="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/large_rUJcFeb6ccpG2omDUgwk9-aLvvrEUhV9hzkhxHPSmZY.jpg 850w, https://assets.weforum.org/editor/medium_XKYAYY1V6dMTegr6HSsa2SbqqGKAN0Ji0sEq54P9cL0.jpg 640w, https://assets.weforum.org/editor/small_3D1SaTcNjzNBPL4nYnzzyVzy37PtYx0kaAv1VTfJJXU.jpg 320w" src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/f4QFcPRUuDnCtObp5I24EdDrvKas_rHEFRvtQgfOqt0.jpg"></picture><figcaption dir="auto">Image: Reuters</figcaption></figure>The good news is that those same technological advances will also create 2.1 million new jobs. But the manual and clerical workers who find themselves out of work are unlikely to have the required skills to compete for the new roles. Most new jobs will be in more specialized areas such as computing, mathematics, architecture and engineering. Governments and employers in every sector are being urged to retrain and re-skill workers to avoid a crisis. “Without urgent and targeted action today, to manage the near-term transition and build a workforce with future-proof skills, governments will have to cope with ever-growing unemployment and inequality, and businesses with a shrinking consumer base,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.New skills for new economiesSo what skills should workers be acquiring to make sure they have value as the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourth-industrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/" dir="ltr">Fourth Industrial Revolution</a> gathers pace? Some may be surprised to learn that skills we develop in pre-school will be valued highly. <a href="http://scholar.harvard.edu/ddeming/home" rel="noopener" dir="ltr">David Deming</a>, associate professor of education and economics at Harvard University, argues that soft skills like sharing and negotiating will be crucial. He says the modern workplace, where people move between different roles and projects, closely resembles pre-school classrooms, where we learn social skills such as empathy and cooperation. Deming has mapped the changing needs of employers and identified key skills that will be required to thrive in the job market of the near future. Along with those soft skills, mathematical ability will be enormously beneficial. <figure><picture><img alt=" " src="https://assets.weforum.org/editor/EPp-uLLjZgeD_wToO_hjtxfGAQg0FyEUFLpCO5HlSeY.PNG"></picture></figure>Single-skillset jobs in declineDeming shows that in recent years, many jobs requiring only mathematical skills have been automated. Bank tellers and statistical clerks have suffered. Roles which require predominantly social skills (childcare workers, for example) tend to be poorly paid as the supply of potential workers is very large. The study shows that workers who successfully combine mathematical and interpersonal skills in the knowledge-based economies of the future should find many rewarding and lucrative opportunities. Refocusing skills education The challenge now, says Deming, is for educators to complement their teaching of technical skills like mathematics and computer science, with a focus on making sure the workers of the future have the soft skills to compete in the new jobs market. You can find more blogs in the <a href="https://www.weforum.org/focus/skills-for-your-future" dir="ltr">Skills for Your Future series</a> here

Maths ability will get you furthest, says Harvard's Davis Deming. As long as you've got the social skills to go with it.

The jobs of the future – and two skills you need to get them

New Skills For New Economies

The Future Work Market

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