Lifting the Labor Force: Trends in Workforce Technology
A much-quoted statistic goes something like this: “65% of children entering primary school today will ultimately end up working in completely new job types that don’t yet exist.” While the accuracy of the claim is undetermined, the underlying importance on workforce development it that it suggests is very much certain. Due to disruptive technological innovations, traditional industries and professions will completely transform and change the workforce as we know it today.
The tried-and-true examples of skills and job categories are familiar: artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing, software development, and so on. However, above all of this is a burgeoning trend that is become an industry segment all unto itself: workforce technology. According to a 2018 study by LearnLaunch, there is a jolt of interest in the education technology market for workforce technology. Startups targeting the workplace segment (~250 in the US) collectively raised $1.4B for content and technology for workforce development between 2015 and 2017.
As workforce technology has solidified itself as an industry segment, so too have software companies begun innovating on the labor lifecycle as a result. One can already see how each stage in the labor market has been affected and influenced by startups focused on education and marketplace efficiency.
