COGNIZANT JOBS OF THE FUTURE INDEX
To benchmark the emergence of new jobs, we have created the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index? (CJoF Index). Our quarterly index explores the trends and patterns of 50 jobs. Developed from our own Center for the Future of Work reports, and supported by economic research firm ESI Thoughtlab, the CJoF Index answers key questions like:
We hope the CJoF Index helps you gain insight into tomorrow’s job market—and what's required for employees and employers to remain competitive.
READ MORE ABOUT THE INDEX READ THE FULL METHODOLOGY FOR THE CJOF INDEXThe rapid rise of technology is causing US companies to rethink jobs for the future of work. To benchmark these emerging jobs, we have created the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index? (CJoF Index). This quarterly index measures the change in demand for a set of 50 jobs of the future, 45 actual jobs and five proxy ones. It also includes eight additional sub-indices that represent families of similar jobs. (Click to see more about these jobs). The CJoF Index score represents the sum of the current quarterly total of US job openings divided by the quarterly total of US job openings in the 3rd quarter of 2016 (the base year for the Index). The index was developed by the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work, together with ESI ThoughtLab, an economic research firm.
The rapid rise of technology is transforming the future of work in the US. Companies are not only rethinking traditional jobs through a digital lens, but also inventing new jobs that will be important in the future. To track the growth in these future jobs, Cognizant teamed up with ESI ThoughtLab, a leading economic research firm, to create the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index? (CJoF Index).
This quarterly index measures the change in demand for a set of 50 jobs of the future identified through analysis conducted by the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work and ESI ThoughtLab. ESI ThoughtLab’s senior economists constructed the analytical framework for the index, and Burning Glass, a provider of workforce analytics, provided the current and historical data on job openings.
The CJoF Index score represents the sum of the current quarterly total of US job openings divided by the quarterly total of US job openings in the 3rd quarter of 2016 (the base year for the Index). In addition to the composite score of 50 jobs of the future, the index includes eight additional sub-indices that represent families of similar jobs, including Algorithmic, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence; Customer Experience (CX); Environmental; Fitness and Wellness; Health Care (HC); Legal and Financial Services; Transportation; and Work Culture. The index allows the user to drill down into comparative trends for each of the underlying occupations.
The CJoF Index, which is updated quarterly, offers the user insights into current and historical trends. ESI ThoughtLab economists monitor and periodically update the data as Burning Glass adds or subtracts from its real-time list of occupations.
The CJoF Index draws on Burning Glass’s highly respected Job Insight portal. Burning Glass obtains its data from online sources of job openings, both aggregators of job openings (sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter, along with many others) and primary sources (company websites). Burning Glass uses an extensive “de-duplication” algorithm to ensure each job opening is counted only once.
Each quarter, ESI ThoughtLab economists input the relevant data on job openings in 50 occupations to create the latest index, aggregating the totals for the full CJoF index and the various sub-indices. All totals are indexed against the 2016 third quarter totals (base quarter) to create the index score for each job, the full CJoF Index, and the various sub-indices.
To ensure these openings represent jobs of the future, the team applies a filter to identify job openings requiring digital capabilities. Due to the use of the digital filter, each of the occupations represented in the Index is a subset of the total number of openings for that specific occupation. The CJoF Index represents about 5% of the total openings tracked by Burning Glass.
The data included in the Index does not measure actual jobs, but rather the number of posted job openings. As such, it serves as a proxy for job demand, and allows the user to better understand the trends and patterns in the labor market and the historical, current, and potential demand for jobs. The data used in the Index is influenced by the availability and prevalence of online job offerings, and the ability of Burning Glass to access those openings and scrub them for duplications. The index measures US domestic job openings and is not designed to directly inform users of potential outsourcing of employment opportunities or shifts of existing staff within companies.
On a regular basis, Burning Glass adjusts the mix of occupations included in its data set, based on changes in the marketplace and job postings. In some cases, occupations may be split, combined, or eliminated. Cognizant and ESI ThoughtLab review the index composition regularly and may make changes and adjustments if needed. This may alter some reported data, as Burning Glass will go back and adjust the totals for previous time periods to reflect the change.
The index draws its job openings data from Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight? Real-time Labor Market Information tool. Burning Glass was founded in 1999 with the goal of developing the world’s leading technologies for matching people with jobs. Its technologies deliver intuitive insight across a range of functions, including workforce and economic development and career exploration and counseling, as well as job matching. Its pioneering solutions leverage a deep understanding of people and their careers in order to deliver superior workforce and marketplace insight. Burning Glass’s patented artificial intelligence engine learns from actual career patterns as observed in both structured and natural language contexts in order to deliver an intuitive, real-time awareness of how and when people move from job to job and of the kinds of skills and experiences that lead to successful placement.
We identified the occupations for inclusion in the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index through a selection process that included quantitative analysis of the Burning Glass data by ESI ThoughtLab, combined with expert opinion from the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work. We selected 45 occupations for inclusion in the CJoF, all representing jobs that the team identified as important for the future US workforce. The selection process included a mix of both objective data analysis and subjective insight based upon an understanding of the emerging job markets by both the Cognizant and ESI Thoughtlab teams.
In addition to the 45 actual occupations, we created five proxy jobs to represent potential new occupations identified in the Center for the Future of Work’s recent publication, 21 Jobs of the Future and 21 More Jobs of the Future. For these proxy jobs, we identified potential occupations for each proxy based upon the Cognizant job description and the current occupations likely to evolve into, or merge with, that new occupation. For each proxy job, Cognizant and ESI ThoughtLab applied weights of either 15%, 35%, or 50% to component occupations to reflect their impact on the proxy job. To avoid double-counting, all the occupations included in the proxy jobs were excluded from the remainder of the Index. The table below specifies each proxy job and its occupation components.
Proxy job | Occupation components |
Augmented reality (AR) journey builder |
Actor Choreographer Copywriter Art director Graphic designer / desktop publisher Set / exhibit designer Multimedia designer / animator |
Cyber calamity forecaster |
Web designer Web developer Computer programmer Computer systems engineer / architect Insurance underwriter Actuary Loss prevention/ asset protection specialist |
Fitness commitment counselor |
Dietary aide Nutrition / dietetic technician Dietitian / nutritionist Fitness / wellness manager Exercise physiologist / specialist Health educator / coach Personal trainer / fitness instructor |
Master of edge computing |
Mechanical / electrical drafter Systems analyst Electrical and electronics technician Electronics engineer Telecommunications engineering specialist |
Tidewater architect |
Conservation scientists / park ranger Marine engineer / architect Soil / plant scientist Wildlife biologist Environmental compliance specialist Environmental engineering technician Landscape architect Surveying / mapping technician Environmental planner / scientist Hydrologist Water / wastewater engineer |
Our team divided the index into eight job families, consisting of groupings of occupations by skills and function (see table below). These groupings allow for comparison of individual jobs to their job families, as well as between and among job families.
Job family | Occupations |
Algorithmic, automation, and artificial intelligence | Master of edge computing Cyber calamity forecaster Chief information officer / director of information technology Computer scientist Technology consultant Business intelligence architect / developer Mechatronics engineer Robotics engineer Data scientist Cyber / information security engineer / analyst Software developer / engineer Mobile applications developer Video game designer Robotics technician Security / defense intelligence analyst Surveillance officer / investigator |
Customer experience (CX) | AR journey builder Business development / sales manager Social media strategist / specialist UI / UX designer / developer Fashion designer Sales engineer |
Environmental | Tidewater architect Alternative energy manager Sustainability specialist Solar engineer Solar installer Environmental engineer |
Fitness and wellness | Fitness commitment counselor Family / behavioral therapist Home health aide Caregiver / personal care aide |
Health care (HC) | Biostatistician Biomedical engineer Physician Registered nurse Health information manager / director Health technician / technologist (other) Genetic counselor Biomedical equipment technician |
Legal and financial services | Personal financial advisor Risk manager / analyst Attorney |
Transportation | Aerospace engineer Urban / transportation planner Avionics technician Transportation supervisor |
Work culture | Training and development specialist Industrial-organizational psychologist Career counselor |
The Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index was created by The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work in collaboration with ESI ThoughtLab. The Cognizant team included Ben Pring, vice president and Co-founder of the Center and Managing Director, and Rob Brown, assistant vice president. The ESI ThoughtLab team included Lou Celi, chief executive, Dr. Daniel Miles, chief economist, Steve Wray, director of regional economics and labor, and Rebecca DeJoseph, senior economist.
The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work conceived of the index and was responsible for final selection of the occupations included in the index, the design of the proxy jobs, and the identification of the Job Families. Cognizant decides on the occupations included in the index and any future adjustments to the Index.
ESI ThoughtLab is responsible for managing the data and maintaining the analytical platform for the index. ESI ThoughtLab maintains quality control over the index, implements any changes to the index as directed by Cognizant, and provides data analysis to support Cognizant’s thought leadership efforts.
? Copyright 2020, Cognizant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission from Cognizant. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
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The rapid rise of technology is causing US companies to rethink jobs for the future of work. To benchmark these emerging jobs, we have created the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index? (CJoF Index). This quarterly index measures the change in demand for a set of 50 jobs of the future, 45 actual jobs and five proxy ones. It also includes eight additional sub-indices that represent families of similar jobs. (Click to see more about these jobs). The CJoF Index score represents the sum of the current quarterly total of US job openings divided by the quarterly total of US job openings in the 3rd quarter of 2016 (the base year for the Index). The index was developed by the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work, together with ESI ThoughtLab, an economic research firm.
The rapid rise of technology is transforming the future of work in the US. Companies are not only rethinking traditional jobs through a digital lens, but also inventing new jobs that will be important in the future. To track the growth in these future jobs, Cognizant teamed up with ESI ThoughtLab, a leading economic research firm, to create the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index? (CJoF Index).
This quarterly index measures the change in demand for a set of 50 jobs of the future identified through analysis conducted by the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work and ESI ThoughtLab. ESI ThoughtLab’s senior economists constructed the analytical framework for the index, and Burning Glass, a provider of workforce analytics, provided the current and historical data on job openings.
The CJoF Index score represents the sum of the current quarterly total of US job openings divided by the quarterly total of US job openings in the 3rd quarter of 2016 (the base year for the Index). In addition to the composite score of 50 jobs of the future, the index includes eight additional sub-indices that represent families of similar jobs, including Algorithmic, Automation, and Artificial Intelligence; Customer Experience (CX); Environmental; Fitness and Wellness; Health Care (HC); Legal and Financial Services; Transportation; and Work Culture. The index allows the user to drill down into comparative trends for each of the underlying occupations.
The CJoF Index, which is updated quarterly, offers the user insights into current and historical trends. ESI ThoughtLab economists monitor and periodically update the data as Burning Glass adds or subtracts from its real-time list of occupations.
The CJoF Index draws on Burning Glass’s highly respected Job Insight portal. Burning Glass obtains its data from online sources of job openings, both aggregators of job openings (sites like Indeed, LinkedIn, and ZipRecruiter, along with many others) and primary sources (company websites). Burning Glass uses an extensive “de-duplication” algorithm to ensure each job opening is counted only once.
Each quarter, ESI ThoughtLab economists input the relevant data on job openings in 50 occupations to create the latest index, aggregating the totals for the full CJoF index and the various sub-indices. All totals are indexed against the 2016 third quarter totals (base quarter) to create the index score for each job, the full CJoF Index, and the various sub-indices.
To ensure these openings represent jobs of the future, the team applies a filter to identify job openings requiring digital capabilities. Due to the use of the digital filter, each of the occupations represented in the Index is a subset of the total number of openings for that specific occupation. The CJoF Index represents about 5% of the total openings tracked by Burning Glass.
The data included in the Index does not measure actual jobs, but rather the number of posted job openings. As such, it serves as a proxy for job demand, and allows the user to better understand the trends and patterns in the labor market and the historical, current, and potential demand for jobs. The data used in the Index is influenced by the availability and prevalence of online job offerings, and the ability of Burning Glass to access those openings and scrub them for duplications. The index measures US domestic job openings and is not designed to directly inform users of potential outsourcing of employment opportunities or shifts of existing staff within companies.
On a regular basis, Burning Glass adjusts the mix of occupations included in its data set, based on changes in the marketplace and job postings. In some cases, occupations may be split, combined, or eliminated. Cognizant and ESI ThoughtLab review the index composition regularly and may make changes and adjustments if needed. This may alter some reported data, as Burning Glass will go back and adjust the totals for previous time periods to reflect the change.
The index draws its job openings data from Burning Glass Technologies’ Labor Insight? Real-time Labor Market Information tool. Burning Glass was founded in 1999 with the goal of developing the world’s leading technologies for matching people with jobs. Its technologies deliver intuitive insight across a range of functions, including workforce and economic development and career exploration and counseling, as well as job matching. Its pioneering solutions leverage a deep understanding of people and their careers in order to deliver superior workforce and marketplace insight. Burning Glass’s patented artificial intelligence engine learns from actual career patterns as observed in both structured and natural language contexts in order to deliver an intuitive, real-time awareness of how and when people move from job to job and of the kinds of skills and experiences that lead to successful placement.
We identified the occupations for inclusion in the Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index through a selection process that included quantitative analysis of the Burning Glass data by ESI ThoughtLab, combined with expert opinion from the Cognizant Center for the Future of Work. We selected 45 occupations for inclusion in the CJoF, all representing jobs that the team identified as important for the future US workforce. The selection process included a mix of both objective data analysis and subjective insight based upon an understanding of the emerging job markets by both the Cognizant and ESI Thoughtlab teams.
In addition to the 45 actual occupations, we created five proxy jobs to represent potential new occupations identified in the Center for the Future of Work’s recent publication, 21 Jobs of the Future and 21 More Jobs of the Future. For these proxy jobs, we identified potential occupations for each proxy based upon the Cognizant job description and the current occupations likely to evolve into, or merge with, that new occupation. For each proxy job, Cognizant and ESI ThoughtLab applied weights of either 15%, 35%, or 50% to component occupations to reflect their impact on the proxy job. To avoid double-counting, all the occupations included in the proxy jobs were excluded from the remainder of the Index. The table below specifies each proxy job and its occupation components.
Proxy job | Occupation components |
Augmented reality (AR) journey builder |
Actor Choreographer Copywriter Art director Graphic designer / desktop publisher Set / exhibit designer Multimedia designer / animator |
Cyber calamity forecaster |
Web designer Web developer Computer programmer Computer systems engineer / architect Insurance underwriter Actuary Loss prevention/ asset protection specialist |
Fitness commitment counselor |
Dietary aide Nutrition / dietetic technician Dietitian / nutritionist Fitness / wellness manager Exercise physiologist / specialist Health educator / coach Personal trainer / fitness instructor |
Master of edge computing |
Mechanical / electrical drafter Systems analyst Electrical and electronics technician Electronics engineer Telecommunications engineering specialist |
Tidewater architect |
Conservation scientists / park ranger Marine engineer / architect Soil / plant scientist Wildlife biologist Environmental compliance specialist Environmental engineering technician Landscape architect Surveying / mapping technician Environmental planner / scientist Hydrologist Water / wastewater engineer |
Our team divided the index into eight job families, consisting of groupings of occupations by skills and function (see table below). These groupings allow for comparison of individual jobs to their job families, as well as between and among job families.
Job family | Occupations |
Algorithmic, automation, and artificial intelligence | Master of edge computing Cyber calamity forecaster Chief information officer / director of information technology Computer scientist Technology consultant Business intelligence architect / developer Mechatronics engineer Robotics engineer Data scientist Cyber / information security engineer / analyst Software developer / engineer Mobile applications developer Video game designer Robotics technician Security / defense intelligence analyst Surveillance officer / investigator |
Customer experience (CX) | AR journey builder Business development / sales manager Social media strategist / specialist UI / UX designer / developer Fashion designer Sales engineer |
Environmental | Tidewater architect Alternative energy manager Sustainability specialist Solar engineer Solar installer Environmental engineer |
Fitness and wellness | Fitness commitment counselor Family / behavioral therapist Home health aide Caregiver / personal care aide |
Health care (HC) | Biostatistician Biomedical engineer Physician Registered nurse Health information manager / director Health technician / technologist (other) Genetic counselor Biomedical equipment technician |
Legal and financial services | Personal financial advisor Risk manager / analyst Attorney |
Transportation | Aerospace engineer Urban / transportation planner Avionics technician Transportation supervisor |
Work culture | Training and development specialist Industrial-organizational psychologist Career counselor |
The Cognizant Jobs of the Future Index was created by The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work in collaboration with ESI ThoughtLab. The Cognizant team included Ben Pring, vice president and Co-founder of the Center and Managing Director, and Rob Brown, assistant vice president. The ESI ThoughtLab team included Lou Celi, chief executive, Dr. Daniel Miles, chief economist, Steve Wray, director of regional economics and labor, and Rebecca DeJoseph, senior economist.
The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work conceived of the index and was responsible for final selection of the occupations included in the index, the design of the proxy jobs, and the identification of the Job Families. Cognizant decides on the occupations included in the index and any future adjustments to the Index.
ESI ThoughtLab is responsible for managing the data and maintaining the analytical platform for the index. ESI ThoughtLab maintains quality control over the index, implements any changes to the index as directed by Cognizant, and provides data analysis to support Cognizant’s thought leadership efforts.
? Copyright 2020, Cognizant. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the express written permission from Cognizant. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.
Dive deeper into the job families that make up the index
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