The job market is constantly changing its shape, and technological change is a major driver of disruption, with certain roles expected to decline sharply in the coming decades due to the impact of automation, digitization, and artificial intelligence.
A global survey of employers has signaled that the role of clerical workers will decline the most between 2025 and 2030, according to the World Economic Forum.
Among the world’s fastest-shrinking jobs, postal service clerks are expected to decline dramatically by 40%, followed by bank tellers by 35% and data entry clerks by 34%. Most of these jobs will shrink because AI can do them faster.
The list was published by Visual Capitalist, based on the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025.
The report, based on a survey of 1,043 unique responses from companies worldwide, predicts the fastest shrinking jobs between 2025 and 2030, representing a combined 14.1 million employees worldwide.
Dominance of e-commerce and self-checkout technology
Jobs such as cashiers, administrative assistants, and ticket clerks are expected to decline as e-commerce and self-checkout usage continue to increase worldwide, according to Visual Capitalist.
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The job cuts in this sector of retail and admin roles may not be as severe. For example, Amazon’s “Just Walk Out” checkout system, which was marketed as being entirely controlled by artificial intelligence, was reported by several media outlets in early 2024 to actually rely on Indian workers to manually review transactions to ensure accuracy, according to Visual Capitalist.
In June–July 2024, McDonald’s announced that it was ending the AI drive-thru trial, largely due to confusion, an inability to handle complex orders, and audio issues.