The Skills Companies Need Most in 2020

NickOttens

LinkedIn Learning surfaced timely data from its network of 660+ million professionals and 20+ million jobs to reveal the 15 most in-demand soft and hard skills of 2020.

Deanna Pate reports they are:

Soft Skills

1. Creativity
2. Persuasion
3. Collaboration
4. Adaptability
5. Emotional Intelligence

Hard Skills

1. Blockchain
2. Cloud Computing
3. Analytical Reasoning
4. Artificial Intelligence
5. UX Design
6. Business Analysis
7. Affiliate Marketing
8. Sales
9. Scientific Computing
10. Video Production

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BryanNamba

Thanks for sharing, Nick! The World Economic Forum released a report earlier this month called " Jobs of Tomorrow: Mapping Opportunity in the New Economy." In the report they break down emerging jobs and the top skills related to the following categories:
1. Care Economy
2. Data and AI
3. Engineering and Cloud Computing
4. Green Economy
5. People and Culture
6. Product Development
7. Sales, Marketing and Content
Interesting read!

Roey

Thanks, @NickOttens !
I'm going to challenge these findings (just for the fun of it, and let's see how solid a case I can build).

Namely, the "soft skills" part. Four out of five of those skills are things that, well, everyone needs to have. Every employer would like their workers to have these skills - whether they're in the business of elderly homecare or rocket engineering.

We know that when plenty of people are competing over jobs, the employers use the old schtick of adding several skills to the "wanted" poster. Because, well, why not? If ten people are competing for the same job, I'll want the one that not only knows how to design a missile, but is also creative, adaptable, and has enough EQ to not bother everyone on the team with his contrarian approach. So I'll add those traits to the list as well. (support me on this, @jordangiali - you have the source)

So I wonder just how many of those soft skills really are in demand, as opposed to just having been thrown into the mix.

NickOttens

I think that's a good point! Maybe somebody in the community can help - has there been any research into skills companies really need versus skills they consider nice-to-have?

jordangiali

Thanks, @Roey.

As you’ve noted, recent economic research has shown a positive correlation between employer skill requirements listed on job postings and the supply of available labor. In particular, the paper shows how job description requirements significantly increased as U.S. unemployment rose in the wake of the 2007-2009 recession.

It’s an interesting question to consider in light of the future of work. How should we think about this? Do employers in fact need these skills, or do they use them more as a ‘filtering’ mechanism when workers are plentiful? What are the implications for job training and education if employer requirements are more flexible than what’s typically suggested? I'm interested to hear what everyone thinks.

Roey

I think these skills are actually needed for certain occupations (mostly social ones). For the rest, I'm not so sure.

ramdhanyk

MIT JWEL released human skills matrix: https://jwel.mit.edu/human-skills-matrix. This is a very exciting development as it gives a direction for innovators.

In our experience re/upskilling people on the other side of the track into technology jobs, helping them develop better self-image through helping them develop skills that fall into 'INTERACTING' and 'MANAGING OURSELVES' quadrants, not only helped them to transition into new jobs, but also allowed them to thrive / grow.

Roey

@ramdhanyk -
Thanks for that! It looks fascinating, but I'm confused: does every worker need all of these skills to succeed? How do we teach those skills to everyone?

By the way, MIT also released a workshop around those skills. Should be a very interesting read.

https://jwel.mit.edu/assets/document/human-skills-workshop-curriculum-and-materials