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• Many advances in the future of work are promising, but with all of these advances, the ongoing trend of increased competition is expected to continue.

• In 2022, more than 70% of resumes will be rejected by employers.

• According to a PwC report, 60% of people surveyed say that they believe “few people will have stable, long-term employment in the future.”

Many advances in the future of work are promising. However, with all of these advances, the ongoing trend of increased competition is expected to continue growing.   

Where will this competition occur and why? For workers, the job market is the primary domain in which competition will increase.  

Unfortunately, the future of work means that acquiring new work will be more difficult for a more significant percentage of the population.

Job hunting will become more competitive, and labor shortages will continue. 

Currently, job-hunting is already quite competitive despite an abundance of open positions (10.9 million in the U.S.) for jobs. In 2022, more than 70% of resumes will be rejected by employers!  

Most people, that is, put out lots of resumes with little to no success.  

Unfortunately for job seekers, the future of work will entail more job-hunting competition. And not only this, but most workers are already quite aware of this looming issue. 

According to a PwC report, 60% of people surveyed say that they believe “few people will have stable, long-term employment in the future.” 

And this worry is not entirely unfounded.  

“Competition for the right talent is fierce. And ‘talent’ no longer means the same as ten years ago; many of the roles, skills, and job titles of tomorrow are unknown to us today,” according to PwC.  

PwC’s report does not specify what they mean by “talent” apart from requiring specialized and continuing self-motivated education. However, certificate training and higher education are very likely to play a role in acquiring such education, and thus such paths are encouraged.  

More competition, but fewer people are working—stiff competition among high-skill workers.  

Higher competition has its basis in specialized and adaptive skills on the part of potential employees.  

The jobs of the future that PwC’s report alludes to are not the ones people are currently leaving in the Great Resignation.  

Low-wage jobs are likely to be the first to get automated. The jobs that will remain unautomated will require further education for employment.  

However, it is unclear what will happen to workers who would have otherwise worked low-wage jobs upon being automated. Many workers will likely get left behind, looking for jobs that no longer exist.  

A Korn Ferry study reports that the current labor shortage –wherein millions are quitting their jobs every month, with 10 million jobs available– will exponentially worsen in the near future.   

“The study finds that by 2030, there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people, or roughly equivalent to the population of Germany. Left unchecked, in 2030 that talent shortage could result in about $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues,” according to the study.  

According to another Korn Ferry report, the demand for high-skill work –defined as people who’ve “completed post-secondary education, such as college or university), or a high-level trade college qualification”– will continue to increase over time.  

“We have significantly underestimated how quickly demand for highly-skilled labor is being created in the economy through organic economic growth, new types of organizations, technological advancement, and changing consumer demands,” according to the report.  

This demand will be met with two things: (1) a highly-competitive labor force and (2) a labor force mostly composed of high-skill workers.  

On the first aspect, the highly-competitive nature of the labor market isn’t simply because of the demand for more complex skills. Rather, it is because this demand isn’t likely to be met fully. 

To what degree won’t this demand be met? When polled, 82% of business leaders say that they are interested in adopting an accelerated method of technological advancement. The reason for this interest is specifically “to cut the demand for skilled workers.” 

Shortages of high-skill labor are already happening. Millions of high-skill jobs remain unfilled in all sectors, and high-skill workers are consistently in short supply.

Business leaders are preparing for this situation to worsen. The United States alone –and merely over the next decade– projected to have some shortages:   

• “765,000 needed workers with the skills that come from an associate degree or some college.”

• 8.62 million needed workers for jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or a higher credential.

This represents a missing 5.6% of the American labor force by 2029.  

Thus, the pool of highly-skilled applicants –of whom are already competitive enough– will become smaller, and therein, even more competitive.   

Conclusion:

The future of work will entail a greater amount of labor force competition. Many low-wage jobs will become obsolete in the coming years, and demand for high-skill workers will exponentially increase.  

It is unlikely that this demand will be met, so a situation is likely to arise where the labor market consists of a small number of highly qualified candidates competing for a lot of jobs.  

It is worth considering the degree to which more of the labor force can acquire the necessary skills of the future, as a situation in which low-wage workers are largely left behind is completely untenable.