Economic Progress

Demography, unemployment, and automation: Challenges in creating jobs until 2030

Remotely controlled robots OriHime-D, developed by Ory Lab Inc. to promote employment of disabled people, serve customers at a cafe in Tokyo, Japan November 26, 2018.  REUTERS/Issei Kato - RC142F1E7620

Image: REUTERS/Issei Kato

David E. Bloom
Clarence James Gamble Professor of Economics and Demography, Harvard School of Public Health
Mathew McKenna
Second-year student, , Georgetown University Law Center
Klaus Prettner
Professor, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Share:
Our Impact
The Big Picture
Explore and monitor how Economic Progress is affecting economies, industries and global issues
A hand holding a looking glass by a lake
Crowdsource Innovation
Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale
Stay up to date:

Economic Progress

 Notes: 1) Values represent net effects from beginning to end of the period and do not reflect movement in the intervening years. 2) Global estimates represent approximately 99.4 percent of the global population due to the lack of labour force participation rates for 10 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Mayotte, Seychelles, South Sudan, and State of Palestine. 3) Regions are defined as in the Human Development Report 2014 (UNDP 2014). The regions included here represent approximately 82 percent of the global population in 2010. In 1990–2010, however, they represented 93 percent of global population growth. In 2010–2030, they will represent 104 percent of population growth, indicating declining working-age populations in countries not belonging to any of these regions. A total of 54 countries do not belong to any of these regions, with the 10 largest (ranked by working-age population in 2010) being the United States, the Russian Federation, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Spain, and Poland.
Notes: 1) Values represent net effects from beginning to end of the period and do not reflect movement in the intervening years. 2) Global estimates represent approximately 99.4 percent of the global population due to the lack of labour force participation rates for 10 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Mayotte, Seychelles, South Sudan, and State of Palestine. 3) Regions are defined as in the Human Development Report 2014 (UNDP 2014). The regions included here represent approximately 82 percent of the global population in 2010. In 1990–2010, however, they represented 93 percent of global population growth. In 2010–2030, they will represent 104 percent of population growth, indicating declining working-age populations in countries not belonging to any of these regions. A total of 54 countries do not belong to any of these regions, with the 10 largest (ranked by working-age population in 2010) being the United States, the Russian Federation, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Spain, and Poland. Image: Authors’ work derived from United Nations (2015b) and ILO (2013)
 Notes: 1) Values represent net effects from beginning to end of period and do not reflect movement in the intervening years. 2) Population numbers were obtained from the UN’s World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision (United Nations 2015b) and thus refer to 1 July for each year indicated. Numbers are based on the medium-fertility variant. Note that population growth is fairly sensitive to the variant used. 3) Global estimates represent approximately 99.4 percent of the global population due to the lack of labour force participation rates for 10 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Mayotte, Seychelles, South Sudan, and State of Palestine. 4) Regions are defined as in the Human Development Report 2014 (UNDP 2014). The regions included here represented approximately 82 percent of the global population in 2010. In 1990–2010, however, they represented 93 percent of global population growth. In 2010–2030, they will represent 104 percent of population growth, indicating declining working-age populations in countries not belonging to any of these regions. A total of 54 countries do not belong to any of these regions, with the 10 largest (ranked by working-age population in 2010) being the United States, the Russian Federation, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Spain, and Poland.
Notes: 1) Values represent net effects from beginning to end of period and do not reflect movement in the intervening years. 2) Population numbers were obtained from the UN’s World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision (United Nations 2015b) and thus refer to 1 July for each year indicated. Numbers are based on the medium-fertility variant. Note that population growth is fairly sensitive to the variant used. 3) Global estimates represent approximately 99.4 percent of the global population due to the lack of labour force participation rates for 10 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Mayotte, Seychelles, South Sudan, and State of Palestine. 4) Regions are defined as in the Human Development Report 2014 (UNDP 2014). The regions included here represented approximately 82 percent of the global population in 2010. In 1990–2010, however, they represented 93 percent of global population growth. In 2010–2030, they will represent 104 percent of population growth, indicating declining working-age populations in countries not belonging to any of these regions. A total of 54 countries do not belong to any of these regions, with the 10 largest (ranked by working-age population in 2010) being the United States, the Russian Federation, Japan, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Spain, and Poland. Image: Authors’ work derived from United Nations (2015b) and ILO (2013)
Have you read?
 Notes: 1) Values represent net effects from beginning to end of period and do not reflect movement in the intervening years. 2) Population numbers are obtained from the UN’s World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision (United Nations 2015b) and thus refer to 1 July for each year indicated. Numbers are based on the medium-fertility variant. Note that population growth is fairly sensitive to the variant used. 3) Global estimates represent approximately 99.4 percent of global population due to lack of labour force participation rates for 10 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Mayotte, Seychelles, South Sudan, and State of Palestine. 4) Countries are classified into human development groups based on UNDP’s Human Development Index 2013. 5) Countries are classified into country income groups based on the World Bank’s country income classifications, as set on 1 July 2014.
Notes: 1) Values represent net effects from beginning to end of period and do not reflect movement in the intervening years. 2) Population numbers are obtained from the UN’s World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision (United Nations 2015b) and thus refer to 1 July for each year indicated. Numbers are based on the medium-fertility variant. Note that population growth is fairly sensitive to the variant used. 3) Global estimates represent approximately 99.4 percent of global population due to lack of labour force participation rates for 10 countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Curacao, Federated States of Micronesia, Grenada, Kiribati, Mayotte, Seychelles, South Sudan, and State of Palestine. 4) Countries are classified into human development groups based on UNDP’s Human Development Index 2013. 5) Countries are classified into country income groups based on the World Bank’s country income classifications, as set on 1 July 2014. Image: Authors’ work derived from United Nations (2015b) and ILO (2013).
Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

Sign up for free

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Related topics:
Economic ProgressFourth Industrial RevolutionArtificial IntelligenceInequality
Share:
World Economic Forum logo
Global Agenda

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

What is ‘global debt’ - and how high is it now?

Victoria Masterson and Madeleine North

October 2, 2023

About Us

Events

Media

Partners & Members

  • Join Us

Language Editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

© 2023 World Economic Forum