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SINGAPORE – Millions of jobs will be wiped out by 2027 and the rate of creation of new jobs will be far lower than those eliminated.

This was the grim conclusion of the World Economic Forums (WEF) The Future of Jobs Report 2023, released on Monday. It comes amid concerns of a looming economic recession and persistent inflation.

Nearly a quarter of jobs will change by 2027, with about 69 million new jobs being created and 83 million to be eliminated, it said. This would mean a net decrease of 14 million jobs or 2 per cent of current employment.

Increasing digitalisation, adoption of new technologies, transition to a green economy, localisation of supply chains and slower economic growth are driving the change.

The findings are based on a survey of 803 companies that employ 11.3 million people in 45 economies around the world.

The most-in-demand jobs at the moment for the coming years are artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning specialists, sustainability specialists, business intelligence analysts and information security specialists.

Jobs that will decline the fastest include clerical or secretarial roles, among them those of bank tellers, cashiers and data entry clerks.

The human-machine frontier is shifting to a new terrain, said Ms Saadia Zahidi, managing director at the WEF, acknowledging that technology is creating the structural churn.

While expectations of the displacement of physical and manual work by machines has decreased, tasks requiring reasoning, communicating and coordinating all traits with a comparative advantage for humans are expected to be more automatable in the future, she noted in an op-ed to mark the release of the Jobs Report 2023.

Generative AI is expected to be adopted by nearly 75 per cent of surveyed companies and will be second only to humanoid and industrial robots in terms of inflicting job losses, she said.

The WEFs report points out that the employment of data analysts and scientists, big data specialists, AI machine learning specialists and cyber-security professionals is expected to grow on average by 30 per cent by 2027.

Concurring with the reports findings, LinkedIns Ms Suzanne Duke, who heads the global public policy and economic graph team at the firm, said digital and green jobs have been the most in-demand in recent years.

There has been a 50 per cent surge in jobs mentioning GPT in the past 12 months, she said during a virtual briefing session by the WEF on the reports findings on Tuesday. GPT, or Generative Pre-trained Transformer, is a language model system that uses deep learning to produce human-like text.

Ms Zahidi and Ms Duke agreed that the emphasis on green jobs is bound to grow.

Roles from renewable energy engineers, solar energy installation and systems engineers to sustainability specialists and environmental protection professionals will be in high demand, translating to growth of approximately one million jobs, Ms Zahidi said in her op-ed. More On This Topic Singapore can expect lower job market churn from 2023-2027: WEF expert askST Jobs: How to flourish after youve been redeployed The WEFs Job Report 2023 said, however, that the largest absolute gains in jobs will be in the education and agriculture sectors.

Jobs in the education industry are expected to grow by about 10 per cent, leading to three million additional jobs for vocational and higher education teachers.

Jobs for agricultural professionals will see a 15 per cent to 30 per cent increase, leading to an additional four million jobs.

While disruption will be across the globe, the new economic geography created by shifting supply chains and a greater focus on resilience over efficiency is expected to create net job growth, with wins for economies in Asia and the Middle East especially, said Ms Zahidi.

In terms of skills upgrades, the Jobs Report estimates that on average, 44 per cent of an individual workers skills will need to be updated.

Strong cognitive skills are increasingly valued by employers, reflecting the growing importance of complex problem-solving in the workplace, said the report.

Analytical thinking and creative thinking will be the most valued skills in 2023, and remain so for the next five years.

Faster reskilling will be necessary, said Mr Shravan Goli, chief operating officer at Coursera, an open online course provider at the virtual briefing.

The companys research showed that individuals without degrees could acquire critical skills in a similar timeframe to those with degrees.

Given this reality, companies could opt for more skills-based hiring to tackle skills gaps and talent shortages, he said. More On This Topic Singapore still has archaic ideas about skills-based jobs, says President Halimah askST Jobs: How to choose the best training pathway Top 10 fastest growing jobs*

1. AI and Machine Learning Specialists

2. Sustainability Specialists

3. Business Intelligence Analysts

4. Information Security Analysts

5. Fintech Engineers

6. Data Analysts and Scientists

7. Robotics Engineers

8. Big Data Specialists

9. Agricultural Equipment Operators

10. Digital Transformation Specialists

*The jobs that survey respondents expect will grow most quickly from 2023 to 2027, as a fraction of present employment figures. Top 10 skills of 2023**

1. Analytical thinking

2. Creative thinking

3. Resilience, flexibility and agility

4. Motivation and self-awareness

5. Curiosity and lifelong learning

6. Technological literacy

7. Dependability and attention to detail

8. Empathy and active listening

9. Leadership and social influence

10. Quality control

**The skills judged to be of greatest importance to workers at the time of survey. Source: World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2023 More On This Topic First real-world study shows generative AI boosted worker productivity by 14% Singapore salary guide 2022: Is your pay competitive?

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Ohtani’s blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

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Ohtani's blast caps 6-run 9th in wild Dodgers rally

PHOENIX — Shohei Ohtani hit a three-run homer to cap a six-run ninth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers rallied for a wild 14-11 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday night.

The Dodgers trailed 11-8 entering the ninth inning after blowing an early five-run lead.

Andy Pages and Enrique Hernandez hit consecutive run-scoring doubles to open the ninth inning against Kevin Ginkel (0-1). Max Muncy tied it at 11-11 with a run-scoring single and Ryan Thompson replaced Ginkel to face Ohtani.

It didn’t go well for Arizona.

Ohtani, who doubled twice, fell into a 1-2 hole before launching his 12th homer near the pool deck in right to put the Dodgers up 14-11. He finished with four RBIs.

Tanner Scott worked a perfect ninth save in 11 chances.

The Dodgers roughed up Eduardo Rodriguez to take an 8-3 lead through three innings, but couldn’t hold it.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit a tying grand slam in the fifth inning, then Ketel Marte and Randal Grichuk hit solo shots off Alex Vesia (1-0) in the eighth to put Arizona up 11-8.

Pages finished with three RBIs and Hernández extended the Dodgers’ homer streak to 13 straight games with a solo shot in the second inning.

Marte homered twice for the Diamondbacks. Rodriguez allowed eight runs on nine hits in 2⅔ innings.

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Marchand’s OT score cuts Panthers’ deficit to 2-1

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Marchand's OT score cuts Panthers' deficit to 2-1

SUNRISE, Fla. — Brad Marchand scored on a deflected shot at 15:27 of overtime and the Florida Panthers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-4 on Friday night to cut their deficit in the Eastern Conference semifinal series to 2-1.

Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Carter Verhaeghe and Jonah Gadjovich scored for Florida, which got 27 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky. Evan Rodrigues had two assists for the Panthers. They 13-2 in their last 15 playoff overtime games.

John Tavares scored twice, and Matthew Knies and Morgan Rielly also scored for the Maple Leafs. Joseph Woll stopped 32 shots.

Game 4 will be in Sunrise on Sunday night.

Florida erased deficits of 2-0 and 3-1, and that’s been almost impossible to do against Toronto this season.

By the numbers, it was all looking good for the Maple Leafs.

  • They were 30-3-0 when leading after the first period, including playoffs, the second-best record in the league.

  • They were 38-8-2, the league’s third-best record when scoring first.

  • They had blown only 11 leads all season, none in the playoffs.

  • They were 44-3-1 in games where they led by two goals or more.

Combine all that with Toronto having won all 11 of its previous best-of-seven series when taking a 2-0 lead at home, Florida being 0-5 in series where it dropped both Games 1 and 2, and leaguewide, teams facing 0-2 deficits come back to win those series only about 14% of the time.

But Marchand — a longtime Toronto playoff nemesis from his days in Boston — got the biggest goal of Florida’s season, rendering all those numbers moot for now.

The Leafs got two goals that deflected in off of Panthers defensemen: Tavares’ second goal nicked the glove of Gustav Forsling on its way past Bobrovsky for a 3-1 lead, and Rielly’s goal redirected off Seth Jones’ leg to tie it with 9:04 left in the third.

Knies scored 23 seconds into the game, the second time Toronto had a 1-0 lead in the first minute of this series. Tavares made it 2-0 at 5:57 and just like that, the Panthers were in trouble.

A diving Barkov threw the puck at the night and saw it carom in off a Toronto stick to get Florida on the board — only for Tavares to score again early in the second for a 3-1 Leafs lead.

Florida needed a break. It came.

Reinhart was credited with a goal after Woll thought he covered up the puck following a scrum in front of the net. But after review, it was determined the puck had crossed the line. Florida had life, the building was loud again and about a minute later, Verhaeghe tied it at 3-3.

Gadjovich made it 4-3 late in the second, before Rielly tied it midway through the third.

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Vegas’ Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

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Vegas' Roy dodges suspension for G2 cross-check

NEW YORK — Vegas Golden Knights forward Nicolas Roy was fined but not suspended Friday for cross-checking the Edmonton OilersTrent Frederic in the face in overtime of Game 2 of the teams’ second-round playoff series.

The NHL Department of Player Safety announced the fine of $7,813, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement, after a disciplinary hearing with him.

Roy attempted to play the puck while it was airborne but made contact with Frederic’s head instead, resulting in a laceration for the Oilers forward.

Frederic briefly exited the game before making a quick return to the ice. Edmonton, however, failed to capitalize on the ensuing five-minute power play but won not long after on a goal by Leon Draisaitl from Connor McDavid.

Vegas trails the best-of-seven series 2-0 with Game 3 on Saturday night at Edmonton.

Information from The Associated Press and Field Level Media was used in this report.

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