Insights

The 4.0 labor market: predictions and realities

The 4.0 labor market: predictions and realities

The labor market, as we know it today, will explode in a matter of a few years. This statement may sound a bit catastrophic, but it responds to the general feeling of many specialists, who, far from seeing it as something negative, affirm that it will be an opportunity for many people.

The so-called industrial revolution 4.0 will also imply a change in the way we understand the labor market.. This is why the 4.0 labor market is a term that we are gradually hearing more and more frequently. But, what does it really mean?

Characteristics of the 4.0 labor market

By 2020, many of the characteristics of today's employment market will have changed. In fact, we have already experienced many of these progressive changes in recent times: from the growing importance of social networks when looking for a job to the motivations that drive many professionals to change jobs (and money is not a priority among them).

Even so, the future of new technologies and the Digital Transformation of companies will be characterized by some new elements that will leave many people out of the game. These are the following:

  • Hyperconnectivity of all people will be a fact of life. The Internet of Things will bring about a real revolution at a professional and personal level for the whole of society.
  • Robotics and nanotechnology, These two related concepts will be one of the main factors of change in the labor market of the future. Many of the jobs we know today will become more and more replaced by machines, while many others linked to robots will be created..
  • The neuroscience will also be another important element of the 4.0 labor market, since it will be responsible for studying the neural connectivity with devices.
  • AIMachine Learning, for example, will be one of the essential tools to provide quasi-human intelligence to robots and chatbots, which will be in charge of telemarketing functions.
  • Knowledge and R&D&I
  • Co-creation and crowdsourcing, The management of shared knowledge will be essential in order to find collective financing.

The reality of work will therefore change substantially in a few years and we will see new ways of understanding employment. This will also imply substantial changes in many current jobs and, at the same time, will create many others related to ICTs.

The future of employment 4.0: the predictions

Two Oxford University professors, Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne, have conducted a study in which they state that telemarketing jobs will be almost entirely replaced by robots in about 20 years. In the case of salespeople, the replacement rate will be 92% and in the case of pilots, 50%.

Does this mean that many people will become unemployed? Not necessarily, according to experts. New technologies will shape a 4.0 labor market, in which new needs will be created and, therefore, will emerge. new jobs. What will be essential is that both companies and professionals overcoming resistance to change to new technologies and to the realities that ICT will bring with it.

A study of Randstad states that Digital Transformation will generate, over the next 5 years, more than 1,250,000 jobs. And by 2020, it is estimated that almost another two million jobs will be needed to meet the demand from companies.

Therefore, the so-called 4.0 labor market will mainly involve a change of roles between professionals and robots. It is a matter of facing the 4th Industrial Revolution with the curiosity of those who embark on a new path that, in time, will be beneficial for all..