Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics’ skills and occupation data, we see the following are the most valuable skills in the years 2024-2034. This ranking is the top skills denoted by jobs projected to increase, minus the skills denoted by jobs projected to decrease. Giving you the new skills you need to learn.
| Skills | Value1 | Adjusted for Income2 | Adjusted for Income (Weighted)3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing and reading | 13 | 0.000 | 1.286 |
| Interpersonal | 11 | 0.540 | 1.513 |
| Critical and analytical thinking | 8 | 0.000 | 0.890 |
| Leadership | 3 | 0.000 | 0.377 |
| Mathematics | 2 | 0.122 | 0.247 |
| Mechanical | 2 | 0.000 | 0.042 |
| Problem solving and decision making | 1 | 0.089 | 0.172 |
| Computers and information technology | -3 | -0.434 | -0.801 |
| Speaking and listening | -3 | -0.243 | -0.295 |
| Physical strength and stamina | -3 | -0.446 | -0.446 |
| Customer service | -6 | -0.485 | -0.608 |
| Fine motor | -11 | -1.022 | -1.371 |
| Adaptability | -26 | -3.208 | -7.064 |
| Detail oriented | -54 | -7.041 | -10.705 |
Observations
This yielded some interesting perspectives. While “Adaptability” is cited the most in jobs projected in increase, it’s cited nearly twice as much in jobs that are projected to decrease, thus turning down it’s value in this chart. Therefor this chart is only helpful to you if you are already a professional, and have the baseline skills, such as “Adaptability”, but now need to learn some new skills (maybe better writing or critical thinking?) to stay relevant.
If you are not yet in the workforce
You may be inclined to only learn the skils in the above table. However, that table is only useful it you are already in the workforce, in a relevant sector. Here are the skills you need to learn to be relevant in general.
| Top Skills4 | Percentile |
|---|---|
| Computers and information technology | 90.4 |
| Critical and analytical thinking | 86.2 |
| Problem solving and decision making | 76.4 |
| Writing and reading | 75.4 |
| Detail oriented | 74.4 |
| Mathematics | 69.6 |
| Adaptability | 66.2 |
| Leadership | 66.2 |
| Creativity and innovation | 60.2 |
| Speaking and listening | 58.8 |
| Science | 58.4 |
| Project management | 57.8 |
| Interpersonal | 45.8 |
| Mechanical | 43.8 |
| Fine motor | 43.4 |
| Customer service | 40 |
| Physical strength and stamina | 37.2 |
Takeaways
You need to be good at:
- Computers (Note that this could mean just being able to use excel, since “Nurse practitioner” scores highly. However, I would recommend knowing more than just “how to use” a computer and actually be able to use computers. Meaning learn how to do (at least basic) programming, and IT tasks. Even if you don’t do programming it gives you a good intuition on how to fix computers IT style.)
This is your baseline. Being good at computers will just get your “foot in the door”, so to say. What will make you stand out is:
- People (seen in “Writing and reading”, “Interpersonal”, “Leadership”, “Problem solving and decision making”, “Leadership”)
Because these skillsets won’t be filled 1:1 from transfers from declining job markets.
Source
Occupation data [direct link].
“Skills” shows what jobs need what skills - labeled as Skill 1, 2, 3. “Occupation” shows what jobs will be in more or less demand (theoretically) in the years 2024-2034.
By combining these two datasets we can see what skills will be in more demand in the future. The first table is the results.
Footnotes
-
Each time either the job increase or decrease projection mentions the skill in it’s top 3, the skill will get counted and multiplied by it’s ranking. The multiplication is: ×3 if 1st,×2 if 2nd, ×1 if third. Then the “Value” is derived by subtracing skills in the projected job decreases, from projected job increases. This means that “Writing and reading” is found (weighted) 13 more times as a skill that will increase, vs a skill that will decrease. (Note that if these numbers seem too small to be worthwhile, there are only 57 jobs represented between the projected increasing and decreasing jobs.) ↩
-
“Adjusted for Income” is finding the average income (as percent) for jobs that list each skill - and multipling by the “Value”. ↩
-
“Adjusted for Income (Weighted)” is found by take all the jobs that list these skills in their top 3 most required skills. If the skill is ranked first, ×3 income, second, ×2, and third, ×1. These incomes are then averaged for each skill, turned into a percent, then multipled by “Value”. ↩
-
This is the average skill percentile, of the of top 5 jobs. The top 5 jobs are selected based on their income percentile + job growth percentile. ↩