Global Journal of Management and Business Research, B: Economics and Commerce, Volume 21 Issue 5

Notes: 1 Human development index, UNDP 2016; 2 E-Intensity digitalization index, BCG; 3 Based on Rasmussen's methodology: High-skilled – “knowledge” labor force that performs analytical, creative tasks under uncertainty. Medium-skilled – “rule” labor force that performs routine cognitive tasks. Low-skilled – “skill” labor force that performs repetitive primarily physical tasks. Source: Boston Consulting Group (2019). Mission Talent: Mass uniqueness: A global challenge for one billion workers. BCG August Figure 6: The increasing complexity of the economy is changing the requirements for human capital development Trends on the eve of COVID-19, characterizing the labor force structure in Fig. 6, are impressive: high- skilled or “knowledge” labor force varies from 22% in innovative-driven economy in South Korea to 45% in the UK. Moreover aging of highly-educated population is 45 (median age) as well as tertiary education is 60%. Wherein according to the BCG estimates, the skills mismatch in 2019 affects 1.3 billion people, and every year the global economy pays a 6% tax in the form of lost labor productivity (BCG estimate based on OECD data, 2016). And in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic and the accelerated processes of digitalization of the activities of companies, consumers, workers, etc. one can only agree with the opinion of practitioners that without the introduction of human- centric principles of organization in all spheres of human life in the foreseeable future it will be difficult to approach at least 50% of the share of talented employees in teams. That is why the authors insist that the problem of adequate education, necessary for the formation of the qualities of intellectual autonomousness in a graduate, is much more complicated than associating it with a simple accumulation of individual human capital. This problem is not only of theoretical importance. Today, in the process of exponential growth of the possibilities of the 4th technological revolution, mankind may enter a strip of accelerated progress in all spheres of human life, and may miss this chance as well. The conditions under which a chain reaction of techno-evolution, self-development of the economy and social progress will begin, depends on the state of society, or rather on the position of a person in it. Klaus Schwab (2016) associated this phenomenon with the capability of the technological revolution 4.0 to return the "human capabilities to a man". Proof of the replacement of tangible assets by intangible ones as drivers of systems formation processes in the economy becomes the following trends. According the McKinsey Global Institute experts, over the past quarter of XX century the scope of intangible assets represented by the knowledge economy with its intellectual property, research, technology, software, etc., has risen inexorably. For this period, in the United States and ten European economies (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) the investment into the intangibles has increased by 29 percent. But the COVID 19 pandemic has accelerated greatly this shift toward a dematerialized economy (McKinsey Global Institute, 2021). Experts are paying more and more attention to the potential of effective mechanisms for the restoration of the economy and society in the post-covid future. And the above data suggests that the structuring of future reality will increasingly be based on skills, knowledge, digital and other technologies, and, in particular, on investments in intangible assets. Thus, the future reality becomes more and more dematerialized (Haskel, et al., Uncertainty of the Post-Covid Future: How will Humanity Solve this Puzzle? © 2021 Global Journals 56 Global Journal of Management and Business Research Volume XXI Issue V Version I Year 2021 ( ) B