4 Your Career, Our Future


Table 4.1 shows industries that could be most affected by the transition to a circular economy. Those where jobs could be gained are in the left column, and those where they could be lost are in the right column. It is important to remember that job demand in the next ten years will be affected by a number of unknowns, like it is affected now by COVID-19 (European Strategy and Policy Analysis System 2019). These unknowns include things like:


• whether or not we will address climate change; • how fast technological innovations are adopted, as the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Section 4.2.2) gets under way;


• uncertainty in geopolitics; • how quickly we shift to green and circular economies (Doyle and Chestney 2018;Gregory 2019), and


• how we will address illegal wildlife trade and our relationship with nature in general.


Table 4.1 Industries that could be most affected by the transition to a circular economy


Industries set to experience the the highest job demand growth (absolute)


Sector Construction


Manufacture of electrical machinery and apparatus


Mining of copper ores and concentrates


Production of electricity by hydropower


Cultivation of vegetables, fruit, nuts


Production of electricity by solar photovoltaics


Retail trade, except of motor vehicles and motorcycles; repair of personal and household goods


133 Source: ILO 2018a, p.44 Jobs


(millions) 6.5 2.5


Industries set to experience the strongest job demand decline (absolute)


Sector Petroleum refinery


Extraction of crude petroleum and services related to crude oil extraction, excluding surveying


1.2 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.7 Jobs


(millions) -1.6 -1.4


Production of electricity by coal -0.8


Mining of coal and lignite, peat extraction


Private households with employed persons


Manufacture of gas, distribution of gaseous fuels through mains


Extraction of natural gas and services related to natural gas extraction, excluding surveying


-0.7 -0.5 -0.3 -0.2


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