The nature of skills continues to shift at an alarming rate. Some skills are becoming obsolete, others are emerging as more important, and some skills are entirely new. To better understand how skills are changing, Degreed surveyed over 5,200 people around the world and organized the data by country, industry, and job role. Overall, skill demand is strongest for technological skills. However, the survey participants are also looking to develop their social (e.g., communication and negotiation) and cognitive skills (e.g., critical thinking and decision-making). When it comes to a firm understanding of its workforce’s skill supply, I have been encouraged by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms that infer these skills based on data from external platforms such as LinkedIn. Interestingly, this report notes that more than a quarter (27 percent) of workers believe the most up-to-date data on their skills are hidden inside documents like resumes and CVs. Another 18 percent say real-time information on their skills doesn’t exist anywhere. As firms continue to tap into the potential of AI to understand skills supply, it will be essential to understand how these platforms can overcome the challenges mentioned above.
