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CareerJunction’s September Employment Insights Report has highlighted some jobs that are at risk of going the way of the dodo in eight years.
According to the report, bank tellers, travel consultants, retail assistants, data capturers, dispatch managers, librarians, telemarketers and insurance brokers could be all extinct by 2030.
CareerJunction is a platform that provides job seekers, agencies and employers with reliable insights into salary levels and online labour supply and demand trends.
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Their Employment Insights report provides an analysis of the supply and demand trends in the online job market to represent online labour dynamics in South Africa.
It is based on “comprehensive data gathered from Saongroup SA - where around 5 000 of the country’s top recruiters (both agencies and employers) advertise their positions to millions of registered jobseekers”.
The last five years
Looking at employment trend data from the last five years, the report has found that there is:
- -58% demand for bank tellers;
- -21% for travel consultants;
- -18% for shop/retail assistants;
- -32% for telemarketers;
- -19% for data capturers;
- -26% for dispatch managers;
- -16% for librarians;
- -27% for insurance brokers.
Not all gloom and doom
“It is important to remember that there are two sides to the changing world of work. While millions of jobs will be lost to automation, there will be an increased demand for highly skilled professionals to work in the growing fields created by the fourth industrial revolution,” CareerJunction said.
The World Economic Forum’s 2020 jobs report highlighted the demand for IT and data-related skills.
“Business and management skills are also key for the future – as are sales, medicine and healthcare roles, education, food and nutrition, and retail and logistics. Artisan skills, such as those of plumbers and electricians, will also continue to be in demand,” the company added.
Embracing change
According to CareerJunction, jobseekers and those in the jobs highlighted by the report need to have a mindset of change.
“This means looking at what future roles their current skill base can service and what gaps in their skills they can close through ongoing education. In some cases, companies will support this training and development. Where not, there is the opportunity for relatively inexpensive informal online courses.”
It said:
“The pendulum has swung and job seekers are clear that they’re looking for purpose, career development opportunities and flexibility when they choose the employers they wish to work for.”
This means that job seekers and employees need to take control of their personal and professional development.
The employers
This changing landscape means that companies also need to embrace the change to survive.
A July report published by McKinsey and Company earlier this year, on the great resignation, found that workers are leaving companies faster than they can replace them. Looking at Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, the UK, and the US, the report found that 65% of people that changed jobs between April 2020 and April 2022 moved across industries in the search of a job that was ‘right for them’.
CareerJunction said:
“Companies can learn from this and, with internal mobility in mind, should consider breaking down the skills required for current roles and then mapping these individual skills to the core skills required for the company’s future roles. This will help them identify where there are gaps that can be trained for and in this process, make sure they are developing their workforce for the future.”
