Technology, automation, disruption. They’re the words of the moment and they all seem to suggest one thing: The future jobs market is far from certain.
Estimates from the World Economic Forum predict that over the next four years, 75 million jobs will be displaced and 133 million new ones created globally as a result of technological developments.
One place that’s set to feel that shift more than others is Southeast Asia.
To keep up with the pace of change, the region will try to transition from agricultural jobs to service-led roles in a few years — something that’s taken most advanced economies decades to do.
That transition could result in the displacement of 28 million full-time equivalent jobs within the region’s six leading economies in next decade, according to a new report from research firm Oxford Economics and U.S. tech company Cisco.
That number equates to roughly 10 percent of the total working population of those countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
To be sure, the shift will lead to the emergence of new careers in growing industries. But it will also cause net job losses of 6.6 million as workers lack the necessary skills to move to different roles, the study found.
The challenge — and opportunity — then, will be to figure out which jobs are expected to hold weight in the future and the skills required to secure them. CNBC Make It spoke to Cisco’s president for Southeast Asia, Naveen Menon, to find out.
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