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As HR practitioners help their organizations navigate the evolving skill demands across roles, this updated open-access resource includes employer-validated skill profiles for 30 roles representing 35 million U.S. workers. It was developed through the Skills-First Working Group, consisting of practitioners from organizations such as Walmart, Microsoft, Bank of America, Accenture, and others. Roles range from Project Management Specialists and Data Scientists to Financial Analysts and Software Developers. Each profile includes: 1) top skills for the role, 2) skill definitions describing how each skill is used in that specific role, 3) market trends showing which skills are rising or declining in demand, and what skills earn a premium in the market, and 4) proficiency standards defining what basic, intermediate, and advanced mastery look like. Clicking on any individual skill within a profile reveals more detail. For example, within the HR Specialist profile, HRIS skill demand has grown 31.8% over five years, Succession Planning carries an 18.4% wage premium, and Full-Cycle Recruitment has declined 15.4%. As a bonus, I’m including the Skills-First Implementation Playbook, published in September 2025, which provides the foundation for the updated skill taxonomy. For those in my private community, Talent Edge Circle, you can check out the replay (in our private platform) of our discussion with Ravin Jesuthasan on skills-based talent practices.
