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FIG. 10
Three positions facing the threshold
if the global labour market were 100 people
Source: World Economic Forum · Future of Jobs Report 2025
Each zone, a different future
three positions, same threshold
41 %
Above
Growing faster than the threshold rises.
No significant training needed before 2030. Their capabilities evolve at least as fast as the market, and many move ahead of it. This is where people and organisations move the market, instead of being moved by it.
+56% average salary (those integrating AI in their work)
48 %
On the threshold
Keeping pace, but with no margin for error.
Will need training before 2030, and will get it. Exposed but with time to reposition. This is the big transition zone: the decision to invest in continuous learning determines whether they move up or fall down.
Skills evolving +66% faster than the rest
11 %
Below
Need training, will not get access.
More than 120 million workers worldwide at real risk of being pushed out of the labour market before the end of the decade. Not an individual capacity question, but one of public policy and business strategy that isn't underway yet.
Collective challenge, not individual
It's not only volume — it's speed
The threshold rises every quarter, faster than the year before
The gap between those above the threshold and those below it isn't only about employment: it's already an income gap widening every quarter. Three data points capture it:
+66 %
Skills in roles most exposed to AI evolve at this rate, faster than the rest.
Source · PwC 2025
2.5×
That evolution speed is already two and a half times the previous year's. The curve accelerates.
Source · PwC 2025
+56 %
Average salary premium for those integrating AI in their work vs. peers with the same degree but no skill.
Source · PwC 2025
"Naming this gap is not pessimism. It is the only honest starting point to close it."