Technological progress, green regulation, demographic aging, and geoeconomic developments are redefining labor supply and demand in a context of talent scarcity.

The report Employability Trends 2026, led by Professor Josep Ginesta of OBS Business School, aims to provide guidance on where the main employability opportunities currently lie and which skills are most in demand by companies.

The report highlights the magnitude of change in the world of work. Traditional roles have fragmented into dynamic micro-tasks that can be automated, outsourced, managed by AI agents, or robotized. In office work, hybrid models have become firmly established, immersive team collaboration environments are emerging, new digital colleagues are appearing, and learning and skill acquisition are accelerating through virtual environments and gamified technologies.

Companies are seeking more agile labor models, and in this context, higher education delivers a tangible return in terms of access to employment and improved job quality (university graduates earn salaries 54% higher than the average, reaching 83% in the case of master’s or doctoral degrees). As a result, lifelong learning has shifted from being an option to becoming a habit. Some authors even suggest it will become part of the job itself.

Employment is currently shaped by four major transitions already underway: digital, green, social, and geoeconomic. All of this is occurring in a global context of talent scarcity, particularly in developed economies, where a persistent mismatch exists between available and required talent.

Technological progress is driving the volatility of work structures. AI has significantly accelerated robotization, which is already present in what is known as Industry 4.0. Robotic tasks are growing at an annual rate of 43% and are doubling their capabilities every 1.9 years. AI adoption has risen from 55% in 2022 to 88% in 2025, with demand for AI literacy skills increasing by 70%.

Beyond generative AI, agentic AI has already emerged—capable of making decisions and acting autonomously to achieve defined objectives. We are moving from having a passive tool in the workplace to interacting with a collaborator—or even a competitor—that can reason, plan, and execute without constant supervision. The productivity impact of this technology could be massive, although how it translates into real business productivity remains to be seen.

Agentic AI is expected to displace 92 million jobs by 2030. However, it is also projected to create 170 million new roles to meet the needs arising from its governance and security. The report suggests that this will not be an immediate substitution nor a sudden shift in job profiles, but rather a gradual transformation affecting job content, organizational processes, and required competencies. Workers will need to adapt to the use of this technology in order to remain competitive.

Sustainability is no longer an isolated pillar, but a cross-cutting factor affecting processes, products, and tasks, redefining the professional profiles in demand. This is reflected in regulation, manufacturing standards, mobility systems, energy production technologies, construction, the circular economy, and supply chains.

Around 20% of workers in OECD countries already hold green-related roles. A combination of skills—including management, engineering, finance, data, people management, applied sustainability, and circularity—will become a key advantage for employability. However, a global supply-demand mismatch is emerging: while demand for green skills grew by nearly 22% between 2022 and 2023, the number of workers acquiring these skills increased by only 12%, creating a critical talent gap.

New opportunities are also emerging in the bioeconomy and the so-called blue economy. However, since their viability depends on digital transformation (for biotech innovation) and is strongly driven by geoeconomic factors (to ensure resilience and national sovereignty), the required profiles will be increasingly transversal.

Populations are aging in advanced economies without generational replacement. In Spain, for every 100 people leaving the workforce, only 73 young workers enter. Talent scarcity has become a systemic challenge affecting 76% of organizations. This is reshaping labor markets in many regions with a force comparable to digitalization itself. Multiple generations now coexist within organizations, posing a major challenge both for companies managing them and for professionals who must continuously strengthen their capabilities.

The so-called silver economy and care economy are expected to generate approximately 4 million net new jobs by 2030. Demand will increase for professions such as nursing, social work, psychology, and personal care assistance. In fact, studies related to Health and Well-being are gaining unprecedented prominence worldwide. However, there is a gap in residential care services that must be addressed. Greater labor mobility and large-scale migration flows will be key to closing this gap.

Finally, we have moved from an economic order based on global efficiency to one where security, resilience, and strategic autonomy carry greater weight in the face of uncertainty. The fragmentation of global supply chains and rising geopolitical tensions are forcing organizations to pivot toward safer and more localized models.

Tariff wars and trade agreements—such as those between the European Union, Mercosur, and Australia—have led to a degree of geoeconomic fragmentation that affects not only trade, but also investment, capital flows, mobility, and technological diffusion. This fragmentation is expected to be a net creator of employment, generating an estimated 5 million jobs by 2030, particularly in roles related to logistics, security, and strategy.

There is growing demand for professionals capable of navigating trade tensions, shifting regulations, supply risks, energy costs, and technological competition. This is driving demand for both technical profiles (maintenance, mechatronics, quality, industrial cybersecurity) and managerial roles (procurement, planning, risk management, compliance, and project management).

Photo of Nick Fewings in Unsplash