The study
Who: The World Economic Forum.
What: The Future of Jobs Report 2025, published in January 2025.
Type: An employer survey conducted in 2024. Employers reported which skills they needed for 2025 and which they expected to grow by 2030.
People: Over 1,000 employers in 55 economies. Together they employ more than 14 million workers.
What the researchers found
The skills employers need now
Analytical thinking was the top core skill. 69% of employers rated it a core skill for their workforce in 2025.
Next came resilience, flexibility and agility (67%), leadership and social influence (61%) and creative thinking (57%). Systems thinking was a core skill for 42% of employers.
The skills employers expect to grow
Employers expect AI and big data to grow fastest in importance by 2030. Networks and cybersecurity, and technological literacy, come next.
Creative thinking and resilience, flexibility and agility follow these technology skills in the growth ranking.
Curiosity and lifelong learning, leadership and social influence, analytical thinking and systems thinking are also expected to grow.
The report's "Core skills in 2030" chart compares skills employers consider core in 2025 with those they expect to use more by 2030.
Systems thinking is one of these ten skills. Others include AI and big data, analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience, leadership and curiosity.
Why thinking skills are growing
The report links the growth of analytical and systems thinking to technology trends. It says these shifts "highlight the increasing complexity of decision-making".
How work is shared with technology
Employers estimated that 47% of work tasks were done mainly by people alone at the time of the survey.
By 2030, they expect tasks to be split almost evenly between people, technology and people working with technology.
Training needs
If the world's workforce were 100 people, employers estimate that 59 would need training by 2030. Employers named skill gaps as the biggest barrier to changing their business (63%).
77% of employers planned to reskill staff to work alongside AI.
What the report says about Asia Pacific
Globally, 85% of employers plan to make upskilling a priority. Among employers headquartered in South-Eastern Asia, 96% plan to prioritise upskilling.
In Eastern Asia, 64% of employers see organisational culture and resistance to change as a significant barrier. The global figure is 46%.
What this may mean for managers
This is our interpretation, not the researchers' finding.
These expectations suggest people will need both AI skills and thinking skills. Learning to use an AI tool is one part. Deciding what to do with its answer is another.
StepSim sees these skills as relevant to judgment when using AI.
A manager can use analytical thinking to check an AI answer. Systems thinking can help them consider what else a decision will affect. Resilience can help them change the plan when the facts change.
For managers, this suggests a role for practice on realistic decisions, with feedback afterwards, alongside training in AI tools.
What this study did not test
- It records what employers expect. It did not measure whether people's skills changed.
- The growth ranking uses a net score: the share expecting a skill to grow in importance minus the share expecting it to decline. It is not a forecast of jobs.
- The report does not describe these skills as judgment.
- It did not test any training method, including StepSim.
Read next
- Why AI skills now include business decisions
- Do people check AI answers at work?
- AI upskilling: tools and business decisions
Sources
- World Economic Forum (2025). The Future of Jobs Report 2025. Figures 3.3, 3.4 and 3.6. Report. Source checked 10 October 2026.