Technology Has Reshaped 37% of the Top US Job Skills in Just Five Years

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A report released today by The Burning Glass Institute, Boston Consulting Group, and Emsi Burning Glass shows that 37% of the requested job skills in the United States have changed from 2016 to 2021. Equally remarkable is that 22% of the skills most requested by employers are entirely new. This drastic shift comes from the tech disruption brought about by COVID-19. To adapt to the pandemic, most businesses turned to software solutions and remote or hybrid working models, and these changes have become the new norms.

The report, Shifting Skills, Moving Targets, and Remaking the Workforce, further reveals that this shift is more prevalent in some sectors. These include HR, IT, business management, finance, and creative fields like design and writing. In these sectors, nearly 80% of the most requested skills are new or have shifted in priority. Meanwhile, occupations less dependent on technology like warehouse personnel, truck drivers, and shipping clerks saw only 15% of the top skills change.

The job skills that have seen the biggest rise in demand in 2021 are mostly tech-related. The top five are social media (36%), digital marketing (27%), project management (23%), budgeting (17%), and Adobe Photoshop (17%). In the top 20, four skills came as new entries in 2021. These are Facebook (12%), Salesforce (12%), Google Analytics (11%), and content management (11%).

On the other hand, four skills that were part of the top 20 most in-demand skills in 2016 crashed out of the 2021 list: market research, customer contact, retail industry knowledge, and marketing communication. This does not mean, however, that these skills are any less important than the most in-demand ones.

Significant Growth in the Tech Market

Accompanying the shift in top job skills is the sustained growth of the technology industry. Globally, the size of the tech industry is estimated to reach $5.3 trillion in 2022. Of which, $1.8 trillion will come from the US, accounting for 33% of the entire market. This makes the country the largest tech market in the world.

Drilling down into the latest technology statistics, revenue from the software market has significantly grown from 2016 to 2021. By the end of 2022, it is projected to hit $608.7 billion and eventually reach $806.2 billion by 2027, with annual growth of 5.78%. Once again, the US makes up the largest share of the revenues, accounting for $303.1 billion in 2022.

With the higher penetration of technology comes the need for staff who would work on software solutions, data, and business IT systems. And this is reflected in the top 20 skills found in the Shifting Skills, Moving Targets, and Remaking the Workforce report. Moreover, social media has become a need for businesses across all industries. In fact, 93% of businesses already use Facebook.

Leveraging social media isn’t just for posting videos and status updates. The platform is currently recognized as an effective tool for market research and competitor analysis, among others. This expanded use of social media, along with data analytics, has brought about more jobs related to the platform. Social media is also a vital component of an even bigger business area and another in-demand job skill: digital marketing.  The rise of digital marketing in the past few years has pulled up the demand for workers who know social media, Adobe Photoshop, Google Analytics, and content management.

Currently, many tech giants are setting their sights on virtual reality as the next big disruptor, with players like Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft looking to change the way people and businesses interact. When that happens, the most requested job skills will drastically change anew. Once again, technology is at the center of it all.