SMALL
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Selection of global market forecasts for nanotech-enabled products
Number of nanotechnology jobs in millions and the share of technology
Selection of global market forecasts for nanotech-enabled products
Inevitably, the creation of new companies or businesses that incorporate nanotechnology will eventually affect the labour market. A study done by National Science Foundation (NSF), which included the extrapolation of the number of workers required in the future showed that close to 2 million new nanotechnology workers are required worldwide as of 2015. 0.8-0.9 million in the United States, 0.5-0.6 million in Japan, 0.3-0.4 million in Europe, about 0.2 million in the Asia-Pacific region and 0.1 million in other regions (Roco and Bainbridge, 2001). Most of these jobs were predicted in small and medium-sized companies. Even more optimistic, Lux Research expects a number of 10 million manufacturing jobs related to nanotechnology by 2014.
(Illustrated in Figure 2.)
Economic Impact
#1 Market Growth & Job Creation
The extent to which nanotechnology applications will affect economies in a broader sense is still very hard to access, given that it is still undergoing the stage of research and development. Thus far, researches shown by consultancies and commercial banks have predicted economic impacts from the perspective of market-volumes. Overall, the forecasts vary significantly according to different methodologies, but all generally suggest rapid growth in the market value of nanotechnology products from USD 30 billion in 2005 to USD 3.1 trillion by 2015 as seen in the attached table.