The assessment highlighted above was derived from a survey of 1,000 leading global employers across 55 economies from around the world, which was conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The WEF, via The Future Jobs Report 2025, examined how macro developments may affect employment and skills.
According to the report, the following occupations will be in great demand in the next few years: UI and UX designers, data analysts and scientists, information security analysts, DevOps engineers, environmental engineers, AI and machine learning specialists, and Fintech engineers, amongst others.
In contrast jobs such as clerks bank tellers, stock-keeping clerks, door-to-door sales workers, and executive secretaries, are already on the decline and projected to become more obsolete.
“According to the surveyed executives, the fastest growing job roles by 2030, in percentage terms, tend to be driven by technological developments, such as advancements in AI and robotics and increasing digital access,” the report states.
As it relates to professions, some of the skills harnessed in today’s work force are expected to be significantly disrupted between now and 2030.
“Despite current uncertainty around the long-term impact of generative AI, the expected ongoing pace of disruption of skills has begun to stabilize, albeit at a high level. Overall, employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030,” the report states.
“While this represents significant ongoing skill disruption, it is down from 44% in 2023. One element contributing to this finding may be a growing focus on continuous learning, upskilling and reskilling programmes, enabling companies to better anticipate and manage future skill requirements.
This is reflected in an increasing share of the workforce (50%) having completing training as part of long-term learning strategies compared to 2023 (41%) – a finding that is consistent across almost all industries,” it adds.
With that said, here are the African countries with a high number of professionals whose skills may become less needed in the near future.
Top 5 African countries with the highest number of skilled professionals at risk
| Rank | Country | Share of workers’ core skills that will change in the next five years | Global rank |
|---|---|---|---|
|
1. |
Egypt |
48% |
1st |
|
2. |
Zimbabwe |
48% |
2nd |
|
3. |
Nigeria |
41% |
12th |
|
4. |
Morocco |
37% |
27th |
|
5. |
South Africa |
36% |
35th |
