Two-thirds of the world's employees are optimistic that they can learn new skills to meet the demands of the future job market, while half of those surveyed said they fear losing jobs in the next 12 months amid the pandemic, according to a latest job survey.

On average, 54 percent of the employed from 27 countries say they are concerned about losing their job in the next 12 months (17 percent are very concerned and 37 percent somewhat concerned), said the survey conducted by jointly by the World Economic Forum and Ipsos on 12,000 employees.

"The prevalence of job-loss concern in the next year ranges from 75 percent in Russia, 73 percent in Spain, 71 percent in Malaysia, and 57 percent in Saudi Arabia to just 26 percent in Germany, 30 percent in Sweden, and 36 percent in the Netherlands and the United States," it said.

Globally, 67 percent of the employees surveyed say they can learn and develop skills needed for the jobs of the future through their current employer (23 percent are very much able to do so, 44 percent somewhat able). Across the 27 countries, perceived ability to learn and develop those skills on the job is most widespread in Spain (86 percent), Peru (84 percent), and Mexico (83 percent) and least common in Japan (45 percent), Sweden (46 percent), and Russia (48 percent), said the survey released on the occasion of the World Economic Forum's virtual conference titled “The Jobs Reset Summit”.

One of the biggest challenges for the global job market is the slowdown in the creation of new jobs. Managing Director at the World Economic Forum Saadia Zahidi said: “The current crisis means that the job creation rate has gone significantly down compared to two years ago, but there is an optimistic scenario overall compared to the rate of job destruction. Of course, it depends on the choices we make today. It depends on the kinds of investments governments make today - and the investments workers make in terms of their own time. And it depends on the choices that business leaders make when it comes to retaining and protecting jobs versus shorter-term decisions that are more focused on quarterly results.”

(Writing by Atique Naqvi, editing by Seban Scaria)

seban.scaria@refinitiv.com

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