5.7 — Will my job disappear? (the impact on employment)

The big question. The most-cited data comes from the Future of Jobs Report 2025 by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

📊 The figures (WEF 2025, 2030 horizon):

• 170 million new jobs created…
• …92 million destroyed → a net balance of +78 million.
• But 22% of jobs will be disrupted, and 39% of the skills required will change by 2030.
• 85% of employers plan to train their teams (upskilling).

⚖️ To be read with clarity. This ‘’+78M net’’ is a forecast, not a certainty. It is a net balance that masks a massive upheaval: i.e. 262M cumulative job moves (creations + destructions) in total. And not all economists agree: some fear destruction faster than creation in the short term. The robust message is not ’‘everything will be fine’’, it’s: work is transforming fast, and those who adapt gain the advantage.

Experts classify the impact into three categories:

1. Automated jobs (routine tasks) — basic data entry, repetitive processing, first-level customer service. The most exposed.
2. Transformed jobs (most of us) — AI ’‘democratizes’’ know-how. A developer no longer types every line of code: they drive an agent (like GitHub Copilot) and supervise. We shift toward higher-value tasks.
3. Created jobs (the builders of AI) — see the next lesson.

🟢 In plain words — ‘’+78M net’’ does not mean ’‘78M people left in peace’’. It’s a subtraction: many jobs disappear (92M), even more appear (170M), and most of the jobs that remain change in content. The real topic is not the disappearance of work, it’s its rapid transformation.

🧩 Concrete example — an accountant twenty years ago spent hours entering ledger lines by hand. Today, software enters them for him; his job has shifted toward advising the client and interpreting the figures. The role hasn’t disappeared: it has transformed toward higher-value tasks. That’s category 2, the widest one.

⚠️ Common mistake — taking ‘’+78M net’’ as a reassuring promise. It’s a forecast (so uncertain) and a balance: it masks 92M very real destructions. Announcing ’‘everything will be fine’’ is as wrong as shouting ’‘AI will destroy everything’’. The honest message: it’s moving fast, better to adapt early.

✅ In short

• Source: WEF 2025 — +78M net by 2030, but 262M jobs move in total.
• Three categories: automated / transformed (most) / created jobs.
• It’s a forecast, not a guarantee: the robust point is ’‘work transforms fast’’.