There are differences among countries, too. In mature economies, men may tend to lose machine operator jobs while women could tend to lose clerical and service worker jobs. In emerging economies there is a visible trend of jobs being displaced in agriculture-related occupations in our scenario, even here, however, patterns vary among emerging economies. For instance, agricultural work is one of three top occupational groups driving job displacements for men (21 percent of losses) in Mexico but is not in the top three for women. However, in India where so many women work in subsistence agriculture, losses in this occupational category could account for 28 percent of jobs lost by women, compared with 16 percent of jobs lost by men.

There will be job gains, too. Even with automation, the demand for work and workers could increase as economies grow, partly fueled by productivity growth enabled by technological progress. Rising incomes and consumption especially in emerging economies, increasing healthcare for aging societies, investment in infrastructure and energy, and other trends will create demand for work that could offset the displacement of workers. Women could be somewhat better placed to capture these potential job gains than men because of the occupations and sectors in which they tend to work; however, this gain assumes that women maintain their share of employment in each sector and occupation from the present day to 2030.

By 2030, women could gain 20 percent more jobs compared with present levels (171 million jobs gained) vs 19 percent for men (250 million jobs gained) (Exhibit 2). Across the ten countries in our sample, on average 58 percent of gross job gains by women could come from three sectors: healthcare and social assistance, manufacturing, and retail and wholesale trade. On average, 53 percent of men’s gross job gains could come from the manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, and professional, scientific, and technical services sectors. Women are well represented in fast-growing healthcare, which could account for 25 percent of potential jobs gained for them.

In our scenario to 2030 in the ten countries analyzed, over 150 million net jobs (factoring in both jobs displacement and jobs creation) could be added within existing occupations and sectors, the vast majority of which will be in emerging economies. Mature economies could experience minimal net jobs growth or even a net decline as any gains in employment in existing sectors and occupations are counteracted by increasing automation. Across the ten economies, 42 percent of net jobs gained (64 million jobs) could go to women, and 58 percent (87 million) to men if current employment trends in occupations and sectors hold.

In mature economies, net job growth (taking into account jobs lost and jobs gained) could be concentrated in only two sectors: professional, scientific and technical services, and healthcare. Today, women are well represented in the second, but underrepresented in the first in many countries; in Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States women have lower representation in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector compared with their average share in the economy.

In emerging economies, net job growth could occur in a broader range of sectors including manufacturing, accommodation and food services, retail and wholesale trade, and construction (57 percent of net jobs gained in India, China, and Mexico). We find that in China, Mexico, and South Africa women tend to be more present than men in accommodation and food services relative to their overall share of employment and underrepresented in manufacturing and construction. In India, women are slightly overrepresented relative to economy-wide participation in manufacturing and strongly underrepresented in construction and accommodation and food services.

Waves of technological innovation not only displace or change the nature of many occupations, but also create entirely new ones. Historical trends in the United States suggest that up to 9 percent of the population could be employed in entirely new and emerging occupations by 2030. Examples from the past decade range from recently created jobs in machine learning and AI to ride-hailing drivers and roles in sustainability and resource management. If this estimate is extrapolated across our ten-country sample, that could mean that more than 160 million jobs could be created in these entirely new occupations by 2030. In order to meet the demands of such entirely new occupations, women will need the right skills—and also to have the labor mobility and networks to go after these jobs.