Since 1971 global leaders, politicians and intellectuals have gathered every year in the small Swiss town of Davos.
Over five days, this annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) brings together around 2,500 participants to discuss the global economy and, more importantly, to look for solutions for the future.
This year, one of the main elements of discussion was how the state of employment across the world was changing and how jobs would need to change to deal with this.
Whilst the latest unemployment figures released for Wales suggests that the job situation in our economy is improving, the WEF warned that we cannot rest on our laurels and that certain types of employment would be under threat in the near future.
For example, current trends in technology could lead to considerable losses in office and administrative roles between 2015-2020 whilst there will be an increase in jobs related to computing, mathematics and engineering.
In addition, the WEF suggested that two particular types of job were set to become important in the near future and this is where there should be a focus on education and training.
The first type are data analysts who, given the growth in technology and information, will be expected to make sense of the massive amounts of data generated by changes in technology globally.
More surprisingly perhaps, the second type are sales representatives who will be needed to be skilled in selling new technologies, products and services to clients across the world.
Countless studies have shown that sales is one the functions that many businesses under invest in and in an increasingly competitive economy, having such staff could make a real difference to those firms that focus on this key role within the business process.
In addition, key sectors facing disruption such as energy, media and entertainment will require a new type of senior manager with the skills and experience to steer the company through change.
For those already in jobs, the more worrying trend identified by the WEF is that for most jobs, more than a third of the desired core skill sets required by employers in the future are not considered crucial to the job today.
As a result, the immediate danger for many workers is not that that they are finding themselves becoming redundant but that technological and other changes are shortening their existing skill sets.
For example, it is estimated that social skills, such as persuasion, emotional intelligence and teaching others, will be in higher demand across industries than narrow technical skills. This means that workers may find themselves facing redundancy if they do not engage in upskilling their competences.
Whilst the WEF research found that business leaders were aware of these emerging challenges, only two thirds of firms surveyed considered workforce planning as a key part of their strategy going forward, and just over half were confident that their current workforce was actually ready for such changes.
Indeed, strategies such as focusing on making better use of the accumulated experience of older employees and building an ageless workforce barely registered among proposed workforce strategies.
In addition, only a fifth were creating partnerships with the education sector to try and address these challenges.
This is disappointing because as the WEF point out, governments, businesses and educational providers must work more closely together and change their collective approach to education, skills and employment.
Whilst there are short term measures that can be put into place, a talent revolution must be take place that involves the rethinking of education systems that are fit for purpose in the 21st century.
In some cases, this will involve collaboration between organisations that would normally see each other as competitors so that they leverage the expertise of different stakeholders to ensure that they meet skills challenges.
In particular, the artificial barrier between formal education and applied training must be broken so that there is seamless two-way transfer of knowledge between academic institutions and business organisations.
Another key factor will be an acceptance that firms cannot rely on new talent from the pool of young people alone to meet their skill needs, but must develop a better approach to lifelong learning amongst their existing workforce to remain competitive. Individuals must be given the time, motivation and means to seek retraining opportunities within their organisations.
Therefore, the WEF has shown some of the key challenges that will face employers in the immediate future and some of the solutions to these challenges.
As a business in Wales, you may consider that the conclusions of the WEF are still a long way away from affecting your business but they are not. Indeed, these changes happening now will, whether you like it or not, affect your competitive advantage in the future and it is critical that you respond positively not only for the benefit of your business but of the Welsh economy as a whole.