The world is heading towards a major job and talent crisis:WEF

There are currently over 200 million jobless people across the globe.

A recent study by the World Economic Forum (WEF) released this week indicates that around 290 million young people across the world—which is one-fourth of the global youth population — are neither studying nor working.

This implies that the number of jobless people would increase, and although there would be jobs available, the current youth brigade will be inadequate to meet the talent requirement due to lack of capability.

The study suggests that there are currently more than 200 million people without jobs, globally. The number of job seekers is expected to increase by another 15 million in the next three years.

It is estimated that nearly 42 million new jobs need to be created annually to match the growing number of entrants into the labour market. However, when it comes to finding the right talent for the job, employers point towards a growing mismatch between the skills available and needed.

In 2014, nearly 36 per cent of employers globally reported facing difficulties in finding talent — the highest percentage in seven years. Out of these, 50 per cent of the employers opined that talent shortages will have a negative impact on business results.

The simultaneous problem of unemployment and talent shortages is expected to be further exacerbated by economic and technological disruptions. This is expected to change the nature of work itself.
As traditional occupations are being disrupted by the impact of technological advances on business models, even current employees are finding their skills to be inadequate in the new environment.
It’s a strange situation where employees fear becoming obsolete while employers struggle to find talent for new and emerging occupations.

In such a scenario, educational systems are critical to creating a well-prepared workforce that meets the needs of the business.

The study suggests that there is a need for businesses to intervene here and find a solution to this ongoing problem.

The three key solutions suggested by WEF are:

Developing employment skills: Education and training systems need more input from businesses to better prepare talent for the needs of the labour market, both within the traditional timeframes for education as well as for lifelong learning during employment.

Fostering entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurship and self-employment are significant sources of jobs and economic growth. They are even more important in the context of the rapidly changing business models, displacement of many traditional jobs and new opportunities for doing business.

Connecting talent to markets: The divide between education and work as well as the growing complexity of labour markets, coupled with demographic changes, migration and urbanisation, necessitate better signalling mechanisms to match the current and future supply of talent with the demand for it.