Full-time Employment in 2025: A Shifting Landscape of Work Patterns and Economic Change

h2>Current State of Full-time Employment

As of July 2025, full-time employment represents 82.6% of all employment, marking a significant shift from previous years. This change began in December 2023, when full-time employment dropped below 83.0% while part-time employment rose above 17.0%.

Driving Factors Behind the Shift

The transformation in employment patterns is being shaped by several key factors, including technological change, geoeconomic fragmentation, economic uncertainty, demographic shifts, and the green transition.

Digital transformation is leading the change, with 60% of employers expecting it to transform their business by 2030. This is particularly evident in areas such as AI implementation and information processing (86%) and robotics and automation (58%).

Economic and Industry Trends

Recent employment data shows minimal change in total nonfarm payroll employment, with modest gains primarily in the healthcare sector. The healthcare industry added 31,000 jobs in August, with growth distributed across ambulatory health care services, nursing facilities, and hospitals.

The increasing cost of living has emerged as a significant concern, with half of employers expecting it to impact their business operations by 2030. General economic slowdown remains a key consideration, affecting 42% of businesses, with projections suggesting it could displace 1.6 million jobs globally.

Future Outlook and Workplace Evolution

The workplace continues to evolve rapidly, particularly due to artificial intelligence integration. Current data shows that only 51% of employees globally are excited about using AI to improve their work, and just 45% believe their company will implement AI in a beneficial way. This presents an opportunity for organizations with high-trust workplace cultures to gain a competitive advantage.

Looking ahead to 2030, current trends suggest that job creation and destruction due to structural labour-market transformation will affect 22% of today’s total jobs. This is expected to result in the creation of approximately 170 million new jobs, equivalent to 14% of current total employment.