LinkedIn just published its annual “Top Skills” list, which analyzes data across the professional social network in order to rank which skills are both in high-demand and low-supply.
The Microsoft-owned brand happens to be releasing the news at the turn of the new year as employees often start the year with resolutions to learn new skills and establish better work habits.
Specifically, these latest rankings address hard skills and “soft skills,” the latter of which can be translated to skills that cannot be replicated or performed via artificial intelligence. (So maybe your job isn’t prey to the robots just yet.)
Framed another way, these are the skills that employees could consider the most worth learning in 2019. LinkedIn Learning editor Paul Petrone wrote in a blog post this week that 57% of senior leaders on the platform today say soft skills are more critical to their businesses than hard skills.
At the same time, there are definitely spikes in job postings recruiting for prospective hires with specialized training and skills revolving around A.I. And cloud computing. That’s just the reality of the business world today. But LinkedIn suggests that digital workplaces are producing new needs and uses for “old” skill sets. Podcasts are a prime example of a digital medium growing exponentially relying on a number of established verticals, from audio production to marketing.
Here’s a rundown on the top five for each category, as defined by LinkedIn based on internal data.
Top Five Soft Skills
- Creativity: While robots are great at optimizing old ideas, organizations most need creative employees who can conceive solutions.
- Persuasion: Having a great product, a great platform or a great concept is one thing, but the key is persuading people to buy into it.
- Collaboration: As projects grow increasingly more complex and global in the age of AI, effective collaboration only grows more important.
- Adaptability: An adaptable mind is an essential tool for navigating today’s ever-changing world, as yesterday’s solutions won’t solve tomorrow’s problems.
- Time Management: A timeless skill, mastering time management today will serve you the rest of your career.
Top Five Hard Skills
- Cloud Computing: As the world rushes toward the cloud, companies are desperately searching for engineers who have the skills to accommodate this demand.
- Artificial Intelligence: From neural networks to machine learning, the age of A.I. Is here.
- Analytical Reasoning: As they collect more data than ever before, companies are hungry for professionals who can make smart decisions based off of it.
- People Management: The world has changed from a “command-and-control” model toward leaders who can coach and empower, a difficult skill set few professionals possess.
- UX Design: UX design is the key to making a digital world work for humans.
Scanning LinkedIn’s Economic Graph—the company’s digital representation of the global economy based on 590 million users and 50,000 listed skills among 30 million companies—LinkedIn said it measured demand for this survey by identifying the skills listed on profiles of users who are getting hired at the highest rates. LinkedIn also only included cities with 100,000 LinkedIn members.