The labor market across the GCC and globally is changing dramatically and the nature of new jobs being created does not always match the skills-set of the existing labor pool. This is according to Deloitte and the World Government Summit’s latest report, Winner Takes All: The Race to Adopt an Integrated Approach to Job Creation in the Future Age of Work. The report proposes tools to navigate the transformation of work and create the jobs of the future.

“Governments have not always had effective policies in solving inequality through employment whilst simultaneously ensuring economic growth. There have always been disconnects, in principle and in practice,” said Julian Hawkins, Consulting CEO at Deloitte in the Middle East. “Whereas their negative effects were sufficiently minor, and/or not adequately politically sensitive to require urgent attention, this is no longer the case as the disconnect is widening and the political, economic, social and ethical impacts are more tangible”.

One of the tools proposed in the report is Systems thinking – a framing tool that assists in understanding the nonlinear behavior of complex systems including the dynamic and interlocking elements within it, to achieve the following:

• Enable governments to understand the dynamics, interdependencies and decision-making process within the workforce system. It is essential in social systems where each intervention can lead to unexpected feedback loops;
• Assist policy makers in identifying the causes of labor market behaviors providing insight into the what and when, as well as the how and why;
• Develop a comprehensive and coordinated planning efforts in collaboration with every player in the ecosystem.

“Overall, we are moving to a world where nation-states will be divided into “winners” and “losers” based in large part on the approaches they take to their labor markets. The rise of new markets requiring highly specialized skills mean labor markets globally are increasingly turning into a zero-sum game, where nations that are able to attract the best and brightest will be able to build sustainable innovation advantages over countries that are unable to do so”, concluded SultanbekKhunkaev, Director at Monitor Deloitte Middle East.