Dive Brief:
- Job growth for "jobs of the future" — a set of careers selected for their tech skills requirements and projected near-future growth by technology company Cognizant — sat at 32% in the first quarter of 2019, according to Cognizant's Jobs the Future Index. The index included jobs categorized into eight groups, including automation, customer service, healthcare and work culture.
- The 32% growth mark is higher than last year's rate of 19%, Cognizant said. Among job categories, work culture had the highest year-over-year growth; career counselors, a component of the work culture group, accounted for a "seven-fold" jump in job postings, suggesting a "growing need for work culture specialists within businesses to help their employees adapt to digital change and acquire the skills needed to succeed in the future," Cognizant said.
- Cognizant also observed significant growth among jobs in the fitness and wellness category, including openings for personal care aides and health information managers. Both jobs both saw more than 100% growth in the past year. The two slowest-growing jobs were solar installer and solar engineer, both of which posted below-zero growth.
Dive Insight:
Work culture is a surprising highlight in the Cognizant report. Growth in this category may be an indicator of the demand among employers for those that can provide guidance to workers on using technology. Many employers, after all, are only in the earliest stages of how technologies can fit practically into their business models. While some are concerned technology will replace workers, a share of available research suggests new tech could instead change the nature of jobs — or even create more of them — rather than cause outright or immediate displacement.
As technical skills become more significant in the recruiting process, talent executives are looking to identify candidates with the potential to adapt and learn on the job. Upskilling has become a common refrain among observers, and the need to adapt has taken hold of most, if not every, industry. With more employers looking to shift their training protocols to a continuous learning model, talent professionals will be needed to provide planning and guidance.
Upskilling from the C-suite down might be critical to prepping for jobs of the future, but HR must also pay attention to the experience learners have with training in order to keep it relevant and effective.