Demographics, cultural trends, and new technologies are rapidly changing the job market.

People are living much longer than we used to. New technologies and automation are rapidly replacing repetitive jobs. New communication tools are eliminating formerly popular mediums for disseminating information (good-bye printed newspapers) at the same time as requiring more advanced media literacy skills for most new jobs.

After researching job market shifts for a recent Thinkopolis labour report, we’ve taken a closer look at how to choose education and training for the job market of the next five to ten years.

Key take-aways

• When it comes to landing a job, digital literacy is the new literacy
• Eight jobs that will always be in demand
• Where the jobs will (and won’t) be created over the next five to ten years
• Communications, tech savvy, and constant learning will be required for jobs in all fields

When planning for the future, it’s better to look at long term labour market trends, rather than currently ‘hot jobs’.

For example, right now, Social Media Experts are in high demand. That’s because the technology is still relatively new, and organizations are learning how best to use it to communicate with consumers. By more ‘digital natives,’ people who’ve grown up always using social media tools, enter the workforce, these skills will be ubiquitous rather than specialties – rendering ‘experts’ no longer necessary. (See: Ten disappearing jobs.)

New media literacy will be one of the essential skills required as the price of admission for more and more roles. This is defined as the ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication. Digital literacy is the new literacy.

One thing is clear, if a job can easily be automated, replaced by technology, then it probably will be. This is why we’re seeing the decline or disappearance of jobs such as toll booth operators and retail cashiers. Canada Post is phasing out door-to-door mail delivery service. This will only add to the trend that we’re already seeing in the decline of postal worker jobs. Couriers and delivery people remain in demand as shopping online continues to play an expanding part in the retail sector. Experts are still waiting to see what impact the driverless car technology will have on the transportation and delivery sectors.

One of the things we’re seeing is the decline is unskilled work – or work that requires only one highly-specialized skill. People are being asked to perform a wider variety of complex tasks now. Communications skills, tech savvy, and constant learning will be increasingly required for jobs in all fields.

Technology
On the bright side of jobs being replaced by technology is that this means a boost in technology-related career options. Every new form of automation or robotics requires engineers and technicians to develop and maintain.
The move from desktops and laptop to smart phones and tablets has created a current high demand for application developers and designers. So while we can’t predict exactly where technology will be at in 2020, but we can advise people to keep up with the latest trends and tools of their time. Everyone will have to be more ‘tech savvy.’ Workers will need to evolve their skills as technology also evolves.
These same disruptive trends that phase out some jobs will lead to the creation of new ones. [View the latestTechnology and Digital Media jobs.]
Healthcare
The aging population will continue to require more workers in a wide range of medical professions. Doctors, obviously, will be in demand, but also Nurses, Healthcare Managers and Technicians, Pharmacists, Care-givers and Elder-care Coordinators.
A mixture of healthcare and technology education would be a powerful combination. Biomedical engineering is expected to be one of the hottest fields over the coming decade.
Alternately, learning both healthcare and business management skills could also lead to numerous career paths in hospitals, clinics, private care institutions and public health departments. [View the latest Healthcare jobs.]
Business and Finance
Businesses will continue to seek new ways attract customers and understand market trends. Data analysts, and market researchers will continue to be hot career paths for the foreseeable future.
Skilled sales people are always in demand. When making financial decisions, many people still like to talk to a human being and shake someone’s hand. That can’t be automated. For that same reason, financial advisors and financial services jobs will continue to be secure options. [View the latest Business and Finance jobs.]
Jobs that will always be in demand
There are also those career-paths that will never become obsolete. Although supply and demand can fluctuate, there will always be a basic need for people in roles such as
Teachers
Lawyers
Engineers
Dentists
Doctors
Law Enforcement
Accountants
Food and Beverage Preparers and Servers 
The skilled trades are also stable jobs that will always be needed. And not enough young people consider these options, which has led to an ongoing shortage of trades workers. This means numerous opportunities and higher wages for many skilled trades. The demand for Electricians, Welders, Carpenters, Construction workers and other trades people will be a constant.

If young people want to create a powerful career path, one where they have the option to be their own boss, they can’t go wrong with an education that includes technology, and business management or marketing – along with obtaining an expertise at one of the skilled trades.

This kind of cross-disciplinary education is going to be the key to future success. An engineer with technical wizardry may be a genius at what they do, but an engineer with solid technical abilities as well as advanced communications skills is a rock star.

Critical thinking and problem solving skills also cannot be automated. The best paid and most secure jobs will go to people with solid analytic and interactive abilities.

Source-http://www.workopolis.com/content/advice/article/career-trending-where-the-jobs-will-be-through-2020-and-beyond/

The essential skills you will need for the jobs of the next five years

• finance Health apps jobs learning microsoft online learning
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The sultanate is under pressure to pump more oil to make up for drop in price

Oman ramped up its oil production to a record high in June, adding to a global supply glut that has hit oil prices, as the Gulf Arab country compensates for the drop in its oil revenue.

June production reached 992,700 barrels per day of crude oil and light oil condensate, the highest ever according to official records going back to 2002. It produced an average of 975,000 bpd in May.

The sultanate is under pressure to pump more oil to make up for the drop in the price. It hopes to boost its crude oil production by 5 per cent to 1 million barrels per day in 2015.

Brent crude oil was trading around $51 (Dh187) a barrel on Monday, down from $115 a barrel in June last year.

The drop in crude prices has hit hard. Oman posted a budget deficit of 1.50 billion rials ($3.90 billion) in the first five months of this year, swinging from a 232.9 million rial surplus a year earlier, finance ministry data showed on Sunday.

Oman is a small independent producer, not in Opec, but its crude forms part of the benchmark price for millions of barrels per day of exports from Middle East producers to Asia.

In 2013, Oman exported an estimated 833,400 bpd of crude oil and condensate, of which nearly 60 per cent went to China, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Source: http://gulfnews.com/

Oman boosts oil production to record high in June

• Crude prices economy finance markets oil Oman prices
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A Qatari investment vehicle has taken a majority stake in three of London’s most prestigious hotels in a landmark deal.

Constellation Hotels - which is owned by Qatar Holding, the sovereign wealth fund backed by the Qatari royal family - has bought a 64pc stake in Coroin, the holding company which owns the Maybourne Hotel Group, made up of Claridge's, The Berkeley and The Connaught.

The sellers of the stake were the family interests of Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, and Irish businessman Derek Quinlan.

Sir David and Sir Frederick are the owners of Telegraph Media Group, publisher of The Daily Telegraph. The value of the transaction has not been disclosed.

The Barclays first bought in to Coroin in January 2011, buying interests held by property investors the Green family.

Speaking on behalf of the Barclay interests, representative Richard Faber said: “The business has performed strongly during the four years of our involvement and this has been a very successful investment for us... we are pleased to have concluded this transaction.”

Mr Faber also confirmed that an agreement has been reached ending litigation related to Maybourne Hotel Group.

Constellation Hotels has become a major investor in the luxury hotel market in recent years, including the Intercontinental London Park Lane in 2013 and Le Grand Hotel in Paris last year.

Qataris take majority stake in luxury London hotel group

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If a question is asked that which government is the most efficient globally, World EconomicForum (WEF) has announced that. The Forum considers that Qatar government is the most efficient one in world. Next place is for Singapore, third place is for Finland, Hong Kong comes next while UAE stood at 5^th position. Next five contestants were New Zealand, Rwanda, Malaysia, Switzerland and Luxembourg. This data has been extracted from Global Competitiveness Report’s latest edition. This report considered efficiency of 144 governments on measures like government spending wastage, regulation burden and policymaking transparency for global ranking.

This way if we look at the bottom of the list, the last three countries happen to be Venezuela, Italy and Argentina. The Forum believes that government efficiency directly effects country’s competitiveness as well as on economic growth. Similarly excessive bureaucracy with rules and regulations with lack of transparency plus inadequate legal frameworks all have additional costs on business and obstruct country’s expansion. Rwanda has surprised the forum by showing minimum wastage in government spending. Forum’s verdict about Qatar, though remains a question by many but the Forum decided that. Independent Newspaper from UK tells David Roberts, who is King’s College London academician specializing on Gulf international relations as well as security, considered this decision as "hard to fathom". He lived in Qatar for four years for his pursuits. He raised questions on research methodology and the meaningfulness of the findings. He commented that he does not care how solid is the methodology but those who have direct exposure by living in Qatar will not believe in these findings too.

One of the bloggers is surprised to see the recently defaulted country Greece is not in the bottom countries list to which another blogger agrees. Another comment came as the findings have a very brief and thirsty background with almost no foundation

A blogger commented quoting traffic violations that a violator can immediately have access to Captain to seek discount and that is efficiency of the government. A blogger comments that it is the sweet willof the Captain to decide and amusingly names these discretions as “Khalifa System”

In response to this another blogger responded by suggesting that people should look at the things from a larger perspective. He comments that an ordinary expat working inQatar has average salary as QR 2000 where as traffic violation like crossing a red light would cost him QR 6000. This situation is quite a burden on him as well as on his family for several months to meet with his liability that popped up out of the blue. The Captain does not forego the whole fine but allows a discount. He basically considers all avenues like whether the driver is habitual of breaking law or what exactly was the situation when a specific violation occurred and whether the violation was inadvertant or delibrate etc.This way the violator has to pay the fine as the officers do not agree to discounts in all cases too. For low salaried people, the penalty keeps them haunting for a long time. The blogger feels that rich people have their own perspective about life and government efficiency and poor have to be through the mill as usual. This way Forum’s decision seems to be the decision by the opulent class.

The last blogger however gives a simple solution to penalties on traffic violations, “Obey the law and avoid all penalties”

Do you agree?

Qatar’s Efficient Government

• economy feature finance Most efficient government policymaking Qatar Qatar government slider World Economic Forum
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