The future’s bright, the future’s flexible.

Twenty years ago there was a widespread belief among commentators that the defining feature of the future UK labour market would be radically reduced working hours and increased leisure time.
Fast forward to 2014, the year in which mobile is set to overtake desktop to access the Internet, and work and leisure have become blurred by our increasingly ‘mobile’ lives. Jobs are being done on the move, at any time of day, in almost any location.

— UK Commission for Employment & Skills

How much has your working life changed in the past 10 years? How much will it change in the next 20?   By 2030 the world of work will be as different from today as we are from the days when computers were the size of a small car, and office work meant 9-5, at the same desk, every day.

While it isn’t possible to forecast exactly how the working world will look that far ahead, there are trends and developments visible today today which can give us a guide. Demographic changes mean that the workforce will be older, more female, and more culturally diverse. Technological changes will automate more jobs, and allow more flexible patterns of working.

This study  The Future of Work: Jobs and Skills in 2030 by the  UK Commission for Employment & Skills analyses the trends which could shape the future world of work. It sets out four possible scenarios of how the future of work will look. The only certainty is that people and organisations will have to be even more adaptable in the next 20 years than in the last 20.

 

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