Shaping the Future of Work

Shaping the Future of Work opens DLR Projektträger's Strategic Foresight series for the future European Partnership on Social Transformations and Resilience (STR). The report asks a direct question: how will AI, automation, an aging workforce, and shifting worker expectations reshape European labour markets over the next 10 to 15 years?

Desk research produced 34 candidate trends. An online survey then gathered responses from 187 experts across 29 countries, followed by interviews with four scholars from IZA, Stockholm University, Copenhagen Business School, and the University of Surrey. A workshop with 27 participants from 14 countries tested and expanded the ten highest-impact trends using the Futures Wheel method.

Top trends span AI governance and ethics at work, automation restructuring jobs and tasks, growing pressure for lifelong learning and digital training, workforce decline linked to aging populations, and rising demand for autonomy in where, when, and how people work. Each trend comes with first- and second-order implications, showing how a single shift, such as wider gig work, reaches into pay security, social protection, and mental health.

The report closes with a best-case scenario for 2040, resting on four pillars: digital transformation guided by ethics and worker rights, learning systems open to everyone regardless of background or age, work models offering flexibility without trading away security, and an economy growing while investing in people and sustainability.