Re-envisioning the workforce: Skilling today to thrive tomorrow December 15, 2020 | Microsoft Stories Asia By Fiona Carney, Chief Marketing & Operations Officer, Microsoft Asia Pacific The COVID-19 pandemic has brought on one of the most challenging years in our lifetime â spurring a global economic crisis and severely impacting job markets. Our calculations show that global unemployment rates in 2020 may reach the staggering figure of a quarter of a billion people. At the same time, the demand for digital skills continues to grow, and we estimate that digital job capacity â or the total number of technology-oriented jobs â will increase nearly five-fold by 2025, rising from 41 million in 2020 to 190 million in 2025.