It’s been a long time since a job for life was on the horizon for many; now even a job for five years can seem like a stretch. It’s not just because more of us are choosing portfolio careers, or retraining in our 40s; whole sections of industry are disappearing. Empty shopfronts where camera stores or video rentals might have stood 20 years ago are evidence of our changing consumer appetites. Advances in technology mean that even the most dependable trades now look shaky. Ten years ago, driverless cars were the stuff of science fiction. Now, how long has your average cabbie got?

“Is there a wave of change coming? Absolutely,” says Raj Mody, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “And changes are likely to get faster and more disruptive in the next 10 years.” According to PwC’s recently published Workforce Of The Future report, 37% of us are worried about losing our jobs to automation. But this concern may be a little misplaced. “We’re already in a situation where humans and robots are intertwined,” Mody says. “What I think we’ll see more of is deconstructing jobs into component skills – those tasks that can be automated and those that are uniquely human: adaptability, creativity, leadership, even the ability to delight a customer.” So the jobs, or job titles, we recognise may evolve into something quite different.

Beyond robots, there is the uncertainty of Brexit, the ups and downs of the economy, and significant demographic shifts, all of which could transform the way we work. “Not only are people living longer, they aren’t saving enough to fund the old style of retirement, so we’re likely to see people diversifying and adapting to longer working lives,” Mody says.