Paradigm shifting – The Economic Times

We have been studying the long-term impact of Covid-19 after economies reopen, and that includes the jobs, skills and workforce transitions that will be required. We looked at eight countries that represent different levels of income and economic development. We measured proximity metrics for 800 occupations….

We found that the disruptions will be highest in four arenas: on-site customer interaction, such as in retail; work in leisure and travel, including restaurants and hotels; indoor production and warehousing, which includes factories; and computer-based office work….

Notice that these categories cover a lot of low-wage, hourly, frontline service jobs. This will be a very different dynamic than what we saw in the past with technology and automation…. The disruptions are coming from three broad sets of trends.

First, Covid-19 accelerated a shift to remote work and virtual meetings…. 20% of business travel may be permanently replaced by virtual meetings, although the same will not be true for leisure travel and tourism. The second big group of trends relates to ecommerce and other digital transactions, from restaurant delivery to telemedicine…. Third, there is automation and AI, with companies using technology to adapt to the new realities and planning to implement more technologies in the future.

From “The Workforce of the Future”