Resilience, not just reskilling, is critical in an age of job disruptions

How to turn adversity into advantage and see opportunity in loss is a challenge that individuals – and society - must give more thought to.

- Ravi Velloor

As more layoffs are announced at firms such as Meta and Intel, it is impossible to avoid thinking of the disruption that must be taking place in hundreds of thousands of middle-class lives. Along with that, there is the pressing question of how best to manage such setbacks in one's working life.

With each passing week, it is getting clear that the forces shaking up the employment sector are gaining velocity.

Meta chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg dubbed 2023 as the firm's "Year of Efficiency", as he let go of thousands last year. This year's layoffs, where positions at WhatsApp and Instagram were recently affected, signal that it is not just the "big cuts" that cast a shadow over workers but also recurrent slicing and dicing as firms continually review and "right-size".

This volatility is most notable with the technology industry, but a host of other sectors are just as vulnerable, including retail and back offices. Law firms too are headed towards a leaner future as they introduce customised artificial intelligence (AI) that does more work faster and with fewer people involved.

So far, the accepted wisdom is that while some jobs may indeed disappear with the march of technology, opportunities in new areas arise to make up for the loss.

Some of it is true. Jobs in AI and areas like cyber security are chasing CVs for sure. The US jobs market is widely regarded as being strong, despite the frequent tech layoffs. That said, the September employment figures warrant a closer look.