Nearly 80% Of Today’s Job Skills Are New Or Have Been Reprioritized Since 2016

A new report from Boston Consulting Group, Emsi Burning Glass, and The Burning Glass Institute shows that desired job skills have greatly evolved since 2016. 

According to the “Shifting Skills, Moving Targets, and Remaking the Workforce” report, 37% of the top 20 skills in US job postings have changed since 2016, while one in five skills include a new skill set altogether. 

The analysis used over 15 million online job postings from 2016 to 2021, allowing the authors to create a Skill Disruption Index to review how skill demands have changed during this time. 

Of all the jobs analyzed, the report showed that business management, design and media, finance, human resources, and IT have changed the fastest. Among these positions, around 80% of the top 20 skills were either new or had experienced a priority shift.  

In comparison, physical occupations saw much less changes during the time period analyzed. For instance, jobs such as janitors, truck drivers, and packagers were among the occupations that saw 15% or less of their skills changed.  

The report showed that there are four distinct trends emerging when it comes to the evolution of skills:  

1. Digital skills within non-digital occupations, such as marketing roles 
2. Soft skills within digital occupations, such as clear communication 
3. Visual communication through tools like Adobe and Google Analytics 
4. Social media knowledge and use

“This report provides hard evidence of an important trend: the average worker is going to have to learn new skills just to keep the job they have, much less get ahead in their careers,” said Bledi Taska, coauthor of the report and chief economist at Emsi Burning Glass. “Staying informed on changing skills while recognizing and acting on their implications will be key to success for both employers and employees.”