The ‘soft skills’ that can land you a job
It is a job seeker’s market, with 3.9 percent unemployment and employers bemoaning the lack of available, skilled workers. But still, there are areas where employees could increase their skills in order to boost their chances of employment in the changing jobs market.
In Deloitte’s third-quarter CFO Signals Survey, the chief financial officers of North America’s largest companies noted that the composition and locations of their companies’ workforces may have to shift over the next few years to make up for the shortage of workers. Two-thirds of the surveyed executives noted that the skills that need the most development are analytical skills, digital technologies/automation and core business skills.
In LinkedIn’s latest Workforce Report, hiring across the U.S. was 0.7 percent higher in August 2018 than in August 2017. The Workforce Report identified some skill oversupplies and skills gaps. Skill gaps provide areas where those looking for jobs can upgrade their skills to boost their chance at getting hired.
In America’s largest cities, employers routinely brought up oral communication skills as being in shortage, as were people management and digital literacy were also in short supply. Here is a list of the top three skills gaps in some of America’s largest cities, according to LinkedIn.
Atlanta: Oral communication, development tools, people management.
Chicago: Oral communication, people management, social media.
Dallas: Oral communication, business management, people management
Los Angeles: Oral communication, social media, digital literacy
New York City: Oral communication, digital literacy, leadership.
Philadelphia: Oral communication, people management, time management.