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What skills are employers most often looking for?
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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Increasingly, employers are looking past work experience to see what skills job candidates bring to potential roles. In fact, according to a 2024 article, nearly half (48%) of employers on LinkedIn now explicitly use skills data to fill their roles.
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In order to determine what skills are most important for jobs, it's valuable to gather data based on the jobs being posted by employers. For this we look to a new study published in January by the Canadian Labour Market Information Council (LMIC) called, 'Connecting Skills: Using online job postings to unravel the demand for skills in the labour market'.
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The demand for labour varies across occupations. According to data collected throughout 2023, the number of job postings ranged from 18,948 in natural resources and agriculture to 893,469 in the sales and service occupations.
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There were 4,552 unique skills extracted from almost 3.1 million job postings. Notably, the most unique skills appear in a limited number of postings, with only 710 skills appearing in 500 or more.
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In career development, we often talk about the importance of 'soft skills' or 'transferable skills' in selecting candidates. This research backs up the fact that more often than not, employers are looking for these skills.
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Social-emotional (or soft) skills account for nine of the 10 most frequently requested skills. Customer service (primarily associated with sales and service roles) is the only occupational skill among the top 10.
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The following is a list of the most often noted skills that employers are looking for:
- Teamwork (48%)
- Communication Skills (39%)
- Customer Service (33%)
- Flexibility (22%)
- Leadership (22%)
- Organizational Skills (21%)
- Attention to Detail (20%)
- Fast-Paced Setting (20%)
- Interpersonal Skills (20%)
- Decision Making (17%)
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While I'm absolutely certain that employers do look for soft skills in hiring and selecting candidates, I'm going to add this editorial note that I believe this is during the selection process.
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All too often employers choose who to interview based on occupational skills and experience. It's only through the interview process that candidates are evaluated based on their soft skills.
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It is for this reason that candidates with challenges in finding employment (such as gaps in their work history or a mismatch between skills and experience) need to find or create networking opportunities. It's only through these face-to-face interactions that they can demonstrate or speak to these interpersonal skills.
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One of the intriguing elements which comes out of this report is the correlation of some skills with other skills. All too often we see skills such as teamwork, communication and customer service and then there are corresponding skills that follow.
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In fact, certain skills predict the presence of others in postings. For example, strong writing skills correlate with demand for overall communication skills; being goal-oriented is often requested alongside teamwork skills; and operating a cash register is linked to demands for customer service skills.
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One of the most helpful elements in the research is identifying which skills most often correlate with a particular NOC (National Occupation Classification) Code. This will assist job seekers in ensuring they have addressed each of the three most prominent skills in their resume and job applications.
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The following is a list of the 10 NOC categories, along with the three (3) skills most often needed for jobs in this category.
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NOC 0 -- Management
- Writing (93%)
- Microsoft Access (86%)
- Microsoft Windows (83%)
NOC 1 -- Business and Finance
- Writing (86%)
- Presentation skills (83%)
- Interpersonal skills (80%)
NOC 2 -- Natural and Applied Sciences
- Writing (85%)
- Presentation skills (84%)
- Negotiation skills (82%)
NOC 3 -- Health
- Analytical Skills (88%)
- Writing (87%)
- Computer Skills (85%)
NOC 4 -- Education and Government Services
- Writing (83%)
- Negotiation Skills (81%)
- Multi-Tasking (80%)
NOC 5 -- Arts and Recreation
- Interpersonal Skills (74%)
- Goal-Oriented (73%)
- Analytical Skills (72%)
NOC 6 -- Sales and Service
- Writing (82%)
- Analytical Skills (77%)
- Presentation Skills (77%)
NOC 7 -- Trades and transportation
- Writing (80%)
- Analytical skills (72%)
- Microsoft Outlook (65%)
NOC 8 -- Natural Resources and Agriculture
- Writing (85%)
- Analytical Skills (81%)
- Lean Manufacturing (75%)
NOC 9 -- Manufacturing and Utilities
- Writing (77%)
- Microsoft Outlook (68%)
- Analytical skills (68%)
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While there is tremendous value in identifying skills that might strike a cord with a prospective hiring manager, it's also valuable in being selected for consideration by Applicant Tracking Software (ATS).
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Writing with ATS in mind, can easily be done by adding a 'Skills Section' to your client or student's resume. According to Indeed, most resumes include a skills section, but different formats focus more on skills than others. For example, a functional resume places skills at the top to highlight them. This is a great option for those with little to no work experience.
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If your client has relevant work experience, they can use a chronological resume, which still includes a skills section near the bottom or within the details of each previous occupation.
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No matter which resume format your client chooses, encourage them to include any other keywords they're missing in the skills section. It can be a bullet-point list of specific skills and attributes they have that may help them succeed in the role. Having a concise list such as this makes it easier for hiring managers to skim their resume to ensure they have the skills and experience they're looking for in a candidate.
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Each week, as I prepare the Job Development Pulse, I'm typically advising employer engagement professionals on how to best support employers or clients but what is interesting about this topic, is there is relevance for both populations.
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Within this research, employers can take guidance on the skills that are most often associated with the jobs they are hiring for. This can assist them in better preparing job postings, job descriptions and performance plans.
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From your client or student's perspective, this research can assist them in better preparing resumes, cover letters and job applications. Also, it can be invaluable in learning the skills, often the occupational skills, employers are most often looking for.
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And while we don't discuss employment maintenance very often in these emails, I think there is food for thought here when you have a client who is pursuing a job where they don't have much ability, interest or value in the skills that are most often required. Perhaps this is just the guidance individuals need to realize why they keep cycling through jobs or have been extremely unhappy in past work.
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As a final piece of advice I'm going to encourage you to keep print or electronic job postings each time a job is posted for your most popular job titles. Perhaps three of the jobs your clients are most often looking for include: truck drivers, cooks and network administrators. By keeping job postings for each o these jobs, you're keeping a wealth of data such as typical wages, major local employers and frequently noted training and credentials, but you're also gathering data on the skills required.
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The authors of this study looked at more than 3 million job postings, but they weren't local to your community. The more job postings you have, the more skills are being noted that your clients can include in their resumes and job applications. It's particularly beneficial in that the notations are local to your community and employers.
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We’ll be discussing the value ot looking at skills in job search at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday Feb. 3rd at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday February 3rd, 'Click this Link' to join the session LIVE.
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