Via McKinsey Quarterly:
…a broad swath of employment remained largely untouched: work requiring extensive human interactions. Among these positions are the jobs held by knowledge workers—the doctors, engineers, lawyers, managers, sales representatives, teachers, and other skilled professionals who together serve as the engine of the knowledge economy. Research from McKinsey and others has shown that such interaction workers are vital to the competitive success of companies and countries alike. Interaction work is the fastest-growing category of employment in developed countries, where it already accounts for a large proportion of jobs. Because technology has tended to complement, not replace, labor in interaction work, until recently many of these jobs had essentially been performed in the same ways for decades.
Not anymore. Today, interaction work is at an inflection point as global competition, emerging skill shortages, and changing demographics force companies to use their most highly paid talent more effectively. Employers in advanced economies may soon, for example, be unable to find as many college-educated workers as they require.
Points:
- Interaction-based work = 1/3 of jobs in developed economies and 1/4 of jobs in developing countries.
- Causes: stagnant population growth, underrepresentation of women, geographic workforce mismatches.
- Approaches:
- Disaggregate the jobs.
- Become more virtual.
- Allow more job flexibility.
