Jobs of the future · 5 min read
Will 65% of today's children do jobs that don't exist yet?
The famous 65% figure has never been traced to any study. Jobs do change, mostly by shifting tasks within existing work, so teach children how to try things.
The short answer
There's no evidence for the 65% figure. The BBC's More or Less programme tried to trace it in 2017 and couldn't find a study behind it, and the author who popularised it later said she no longer uses it. What's true is that work changes: new titles appear, and most jobs gain and lose tasks over a career. That's a good reason to help children practise trying different kinds of work and learning new tools, and a poor reason to panic about subject choices.
On this page 4 sections
Tracing the number
In 2017 the BBC World Service programme More or Less, which checks statistics in the news, looked for the origin of the 65% figure and couldn't find research behind it. Chalkbeat reported the same year that nobody had pointed to credible research landing on 65%, and that Cathy Davidson, whose 2011 book helped it spread, had said she no longer used it.
What's true about changing work
- Job titles appear and fade. Occupation lists are revised regularly to add new kinds of work.
- Most change happens inside jobs: new tools, new tasks, old tasks automated.
- The World Economic Forum expects 39% of workers' core skills to change between 2025 and 2030.
What to do with that as a parent
Help children try many small pieces of real work and talk about how each felt. Someone who has tried twenty kinds of task at fifteen knows more about what they enjoy than someone who picked a 'future-proof' subject on a forecast.
Questions people ask
- Where did the 65% statistic come from?
- It spread after a 2011 book by Cathy Davidson and was later repeated by business reports and politicians. Investigations by the BBC and Chalkbeat couldn't find any original research behind it, and Davidson stopped using it.
- So will most jobs stay the same?
- Titles often stay while the work inside them changes. A secretary, an accountant and a mechanic in 2035 will use very different tools from today, but the job names may be familiar.
- What should children learn for future jobs?
- Reading, writing and maths remain the base. On top of that: trying unfamiliar tasks, learning new tools quickly, working with other people, and noticing what kind of work they enjoy.
- Should my child learn to code?
- It's a useful way to learn logical thinking and how software works. It isn't a guarantee of a job. Let them try it and see whether they enjoy it.
- What do the forecasts actually say?
- The World Economic Forum expects job creation and displacement equal to 22% of today's jobs by 2030. That's a lot of change, but much smaller than 65% of jobs being new inventions.
Exercises are practice, not evidence of career fit or a qualification. How to read our guides and report a correction.
Sources
- More or Less: Have 65% of future jobs not yet been invented? (2017) · BBC World Service
- DeVos cites made-up statistic about the future of work (2017) · Chalkbeat
- Future of Jobs Report 2025: 78 million new job opportunities by 2030 · World Economic Forum
How this page is written
Sources support the factual background, not a guarantee that an exercise predicts career fit. Fictional practice material is labelled. Dates record content updates; no independent expert review is implied. More about OffLadder.