A report reveals that business investment in developing skills has not kept up with the growing demand for new skills during the pandemic. While current economic uncertainty resulting from the Covid-19 crisis is accelerating demand for new skills among 60% of workers, nearly half of businesses have reduced their upskilling opportunities in the past six months.

The report ‘The state of skills: endangered skills 2021’ led by workforce upskilling platform, Degreed, surveyed 5,000 workers in eight global markets, highlighting the skills now most at risk of becoming obsolete and the sectors countries and job roles most in danger. The results of the report show there is is a widening global skills gap, with over a third of workers feeling less confidently they have the skills to do their job effectively compared to pre-pandemic and nearly half predicting their current skills will die out in the next 3-5 years.

Employees admit this is increasing stress levels and reducing their productivity and performance, which in turn hurts the business.

The businesses that survive and flourish following the crisis will be different than they were before. This means workers are having to sharpen their current skills and build new ones to meet changing demand. We already know the global skills gap is costing trillions of dollars in lost GDP. Not to mention the impact on employee wellbeing,” says CEO at Degreed, Christ McCarthy.

“By understanding the complete picture of your organisation’s existing skills and targeting your energy and investment where there are the biggest risks, you’ll have a clear focus for the road ahead, improving your odds of success - and your people’s too,” he adds.

According to the report, the most endangered sectors include technology and telecoms, finance and engineering, while the job roles having the most threatened skills are those in IT and HR. Workers in India, France, and Brazil are the top three countries are most at risk of skills mismatch