Indeed – the UK and the world’s largest jobsite – today reveals half (49%) of young people in Britain are not taking the topical issue of job automation into account when choosing their career, and 17% are not aware of the trend at all. At the same time and according to Indeed’s data from the past 12 months, Indeed can reveal an industry-wide shift towards jobs that combine technology and creative skills, with more job listings that searches for associated roles.
With in-depth reports on the subject from authorities like Boston Consulting Group, Oxford University[1] and Nesta[2], many appear to be debating which industries and roles are safe from automation – be it technology, STEM, creative or perhaps none altogether.
The reality is that in today’s job market it’s not enough to just be creative or mathematical anymore. Using Nesta’s recent ‘The geography of the UK’s creative and high–tech economies’ report[3] as a reference for job roles that merge the left and right side of the brain requiring both technical knowhow and creative or artistic skill, Indeed’s data reveals that jobs hiring such roles are currently outweighing its job searches in Q3 2015[4] - demonstrating how unprepared the job seeker is for what could be a developing trend in the job market.
Indeed’s data below demonstrates how the rate of hiring for these roles is higher than the job searches it’s receiving:
- Application Developer has 47% more postings than searches
- Software Developer has 23% more postings than searches
- UI/UX Designer/Developer/Engineer/Director has 19.5% more postings than searches
- Architect has 12% more postings than searches
- Games Developer has 2% more postings than searches
- Graphic Designer has 1% more postings than searches
According to a survey of 1,000 Britons aged 16-25, half (48%) of young people also state no one has discussed this future job trend with them, meaning young Brits have no idea that this could even impact their career at all. Most guilty of this are those in Northern Ireland with Indeed’s data finding that two-thirds (63%) of young people have not been told about this issue by an advisor, such as a teacher or parent. Londoners appear to be the savviest with 62% stating they are considering job automation when choosing their career paths.
Paul D’Arcy, SVP at Indeed comments:
“What advisors need to know is that we are dealing with a constantly developing job market, largely brought about by advances in technology. In this new job era, our data points to the future proofed jobs combining different skillsets, matching technical knowhow with creativity – potentially a missed opportunity for UK jobseekers.
Our data indicates there could be confusion when it comes to who should be advising young people about the trend – less than half (47%) say their teacher, lecturer or tutor has discussed it with them. Clearly there is a need to educate young people and their associated advisors of the importance of taking job trends into account when looking at their career prospects.
With the recent report from Nesta titled ‘The geography of the UK’s creative and high-tech economies’ reiterating the economic growth of the creative and technology industries (employment in the creative economy grew on average over three times faster than the workforce as a whole whilst employment in the high-tech economy also grew faster than the workforce over this period), we expect that this will only continue to grow and develop.”
[1]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33327659
[2]http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/geography-uks-creative-and-high-tech-economies
[3]http://www.nesta.org.uk/publications/geography-uks-creative-and-high-tech-economies
[4] The combined creative and technical job roles were identified as part of Nesta’s report ‘The geography of the UK’s creative and high–tech economies’
