✂️200k Tech Layoffs,🔧 Top10 Skills in 2025,🤹 GenZ Career Gaps,🧑‍🏫 Learning Quotient

This week's top news and reads

Hello, and welcome to this week’s edition! 👋

Here’s some of this week’s top news and interesting reads you can get your head around in the next 10 minutes.

✂️Were all of the Tech Layoffs Evitable?

Just in the last six-weeks, more than 200,000 workers were laid off from the tech-industry.

Josh Bersin has written a fantastic article covering how:

• Connecting risk-free capital with hiring sprees and ‘growth at all costs’

• How layoffs don’t increase stock prices, but damage brand, culture, and long-term growth

• How companies can prevent hiring sprees and focus on healthy growth and talent attraction/acquisition

Get the full read here.

🔧 Satya Nadella’s Key Future of Work Trends & Top 10 Skills of 2025

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft shared his views on the future of work at Davos 2023. These were his key topics:

• Productivity paranoia – where leaders question productivity while workers feel burned out, was a key theme.

• People-to-people connections and learning soft skills were also high on his list for the future of work.

• And he said artificial intelligence will be a co-pilot for workers of the future, aiding them in their tasks rather than replacing them completely

What will be the top 10 skills required in 2025?

As technology continues to rapidly evolve, the skills required to stay competitive in the job market will also need to keep up. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report, the top 10 skills required in 2025 will be:

🤖Which Industries are working most with OpenAI?

OpenAI recently released a report on their partner organizations. The report shows that (unsurprisingly) the Technology sector is leading the way when it comes to working with OpenAI, with 24% of the partner organizations coming from this sector. Education follows closely behind with 15%, while Business Services lags with only 8%.

I think it’s also interesting to see Government in the list, it’s mind blowing to think of the potential there for automation but also on the flipside there are huge risks and concerns to be taken care of.

Obviously this is a list of partner organizations, so it doesn’t take into account the massive ‘personal’ usage by workers in these industries, which I imagine would change up some of these numbers considerably.

🗺️ Cultural Problem of the Freelance Economy

I recently had the pleasure and honor to chat with Matthew Mottola, author of bestselling book ‘The Human Cloud’, for an episode of the Human Cloud podcast.

We discussed a lot of great things (why Leonardo Da Vinci lied on his CV, proof of work and credentialing..) and one particular area I care about a lot: Cultural differences.

I think the point of view that usually gets told in many things, including in the world of work, is mostly US / Anglo-speaking centric, which makes a lot of cultures feel either left-out or even inferior to some extent. This is something I touched upon in my article (How to Manage Cultural Differences in the Workplace and Job Search) and expanded upon in this conversation, so go ahead an check this out!

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**Ep. 82: Matteo Cellini, CMO and Founder of Work 3 (Apple)

**Ep. 82: Matteo Cellini, CMO and Founder of Work 3 (Spotify)**

🤹 GenZ Career Gaps: The New Norm

Almost half (47%) of U.K. Gen Zers have taken a career gap of six months or more. On average, one-third of all U.K. workers have had a gap career. Further, those aged between 18 and 24 years old were four times more likely to take career gaps to travel compared with workers aged between 45 and 54 years old. This raises some key questions:

What are the advantages and disadvantages of taking a gap career for Gen Zers?

What tips can be offered to employees considering taking a career break?

How have employers' attitudes towards career gaps changed over time?

Gen Zers are increasingly taking career gaps to travel, learn new skills and start businesses. Despite the stigma attached to resume gaps, research has shown that these experiences can help individuals nurture creativity and develop broader skills which can be beneficial when re-entering the workforce. Companies are beginning to reassess workplace norms, such as increased flexibility and employee well-being, yet career-gap stigma remains. Gen Zers are also replacing traditional CVs with proof of engagement on social media platforms and showcasing their side hustles and hobbies.

🧑‍🏫 Learning Quotient vs Intelligence Quotient

What if there was a better way to test than the IQ?

The Learning Quotient (LQ) is a measure of a person’s ability to learn and adapt to new situations. Unlike traditional intelligence quotient (IQ) tests, which measure a person’s aptitude for specific tasks, the LQ looks at a person’s ability to learn and adapt over time. The LQ is based on a number of factors such as cognitive agility, problem-solving skills, and the ability to learn from mistakes. It also looks at a person’s ability to work collaboratively, think critically, and apply knowledge to real-world scenarios. The LQ is becoming increasingly important for employers as the workforce becomes more complex and dynamic. Companies are looking for employees who can think on their feet, know how to solve problems, and can keep up with changing technologies. The LQ is one way to measure these abilities and determine who is best suited for the job.

The book 'Extended Mind' (highly recommended) brings up the concept of the extended mind, which is the idea that our minds extend beyond our physical body into the world around us. This includes our use of technology and tools, and the importance of collaboration and shared knowledge. The book also highlights the need for employers to look for employees with a high Learning Quotient (LQ) - the ability to learn and adapt to new situations, think critically, and apply knowledge to real-world scenarios. With the changing landscape of the workplace, having a high LQ is becoming increasingly important for success.

🪃 Where have all the American workers gone?

There is too much demand for workers in the US right now and companies are having trouble finding them.

The biggest reason for the labour shortage is an aging population, with lots of retirees not coming back to work. Other causes are people working fewer hours and more people being sick, with 1.6 million Americans missing at least one week of work each month. These problems probably won't be solved soon. The US workforce is facing a growing skill gap which could be causing the labour shortage. Companies need people with higher education and specialized skills such as coding, data science, and robotics. This means fewer people have the right skills for the job, so companies have to work harder to find qualified workers.

📋 TLDR; Key Takeaways and Action Items

Starting from this week, I’ll try and make sure there’s always a good list of takeaways and action items to hopefully make this time either shorter and more actionable for thos who are interested.

🔑Key Takeaways

• Connecting risk-free capital with hiring sprees and ‘growth at all costs’ can lead to layoffs and can damage a company’s brand, culture, and long-term growth.

• Artificial Intelligence will be a co-pilot for workers of the future, aiding them in their tasks rather than replacing them completely.

• The top 10 skills required in 2025 include social intelligence, creativity, resilience, flexibility, and analytical thinking.

• Cultural differences can be managed in the workplace and job search through understanding different communication styles and cultural values.

• Gen Zers are increasingly taking career gaps to travel, learn new skills and start businesses.

• Employers are looking for employees with a high Learning Quotient (LQ), who can think on their feet, know how to solve problems, and can keep up with changing technologies.

• Companies need people with higher education and specialized skills such as coding, data science, and robotics.

✅ Action Items

• Train sponsors to advocate for their sponsees.

• Reassess workplace norms to reduce career-gap stigma.

• Replace traditional CVs with proof of engagement on social media platforms and showcasing side hustles and hobbies.

• Measure employees' Learning Quotient (LQ) to determine who is best suited for the job.

• Look for employees with a high Learning Quotient (LQ).

• Invest in higher education and specialized skills such as coding, data science, and robotics.