Data, tech jobs to drive future

The other top emerging roles in the UAE are process automation specialists, organisational development specialists, general and operations managers, database and network professionals and big data specialists, it said in its “Future of Jobs 2020” released on Wednesday.

While the top 10 roles that are becoming redundant in the UAE are administrative and executive secretaries, data entry clerks, accounting, bookkeeping and payroll clerks, postal service clerks, business services and administration managers, mechanics and machinery repairers, accountants and auditors, material-recording and stock-keeping clerks, client information and customer service workers and cashiers and ticket clerks.

The report found that the emerging skills in the UAE that have been identified for being in high demand are analytical thinking and innovation, complex problem-solving, critical thinking and analysis, active learning and learning strategies, leadership and social influence, technology use, monitoring and control, creativity, originality and initiative, service orientation, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility, emotional intelligence, technology design and programming, troubleshooting and user experience, quality control and safety awareness, systems analysis and evaluation and persuasion and negotiation

“Covid-19 has accelerated the arrival of the future of work,” said Saadia Zahidi, manging director of World Economic Forum.

“Accelerating automation and the fallout from the Covid-19 recession has deepened existing inequalities across labour markets and reversed gains in employment made since the global financial crisis in 2007-2008. It’s a double disruption scenario that presents another hurdle for workers in this difficult time. The window of opportunity for proactive management of this change is closing fast. Businesses, governments and workers must plan to urgently work together to implement a new vision for the global workforce.”

Ola Haddad, director of Human Resources at Bayt.com, has said that thousands of jobs were made available during the third-quarter.

“Over the last few months, we aimed to minimise the economic and financial burden that is already surfacing due to Covid-19 and to ensure that our job seekers are presented with diverse and new career options,” Haddad said, adding that “faced with an unprecedented global crisis in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic, our region continues to evolve and transform affecting the most in-demand jobs and skills, as well as the factors which are crucial in attracting and retaining top talent”

85m jobs to be disrupted

Globally, the World Economic Forum study projected that over the next five years, automation and a new division of labour between humans and machines will disrupt 85 million jobs globally in medium and large businesses across 15 industries and 26 economies.

Roles in areas such as data entry, accounting and administrative support are decreasing in demand as automation and digitization in the workplace increases. More than 80 per cent of business executives are accelerating plans to digitise work processes and deploy new technologies; and 50% of employers are expecting to accelerate the automation of some roles in their companies. In contrast to previous years, job creation is now slowing while job destruction is accelerating.

By 2025, employers will divide work between human and machines equally. Roles that leverage human skills will rise in demand. Machines will be primarily focused on information and data processing, administrative tasks and routine manual jobs for white- and blue-collar positions.

As the economy and job markets evolve, 97 million new roles will emerge across the care economy, in fourth industrial revolution technology industries like artificial intelligence, and in content creation fields. The tasks where humans are set to retain their comparative advantage include managing, advising, decision-making, reasoning, communicating and interacting. There will be a surge in demand for workers who can fill green economy jobs, roles at the forefront of the data and artificial intelligence economy, as well as new roles in engineering, cloud computing and product development. — waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com