Anticipated changes to the labour market threaten to exacerbate existing skills shortages, according to this NFER report. There are currently over a million job vacancies in this country and findings suggest that existing skills shortages could worsen.
The research identified a group of essential employment skills which are used most intensely in employment. These are:
• Collaboration
• Communication
• Creative thinking
• Information literacy
• Organising, planning and prioritising
• Problem solving and decision making
These six skills were identified by projecting the skills that will be required in each occupation in 2035 and combining these with future employment projections. Future skills projections were produced using data on the importance and usage of 161 skills in the US Occupational Information Network.
Existing research suggests there are already mismatches in the overall supply and demand for many of these skills. Projected changes in the size and composition of the labour market are likely to exacerbate these shortages, particularly because the levels of ‘skill demand’ (i.e., the requirements of jobs) increases as we go up the occupational hierarchy, and job creation between 2020 and 2035 will be primarily towards the top of this hierarchy.
Over the historic period covered by the analysis (England only, 2010-2020), the relative importance of these different skills changes, reflecting changes in both the occupational distribution of employment and changes in the utilisation of skills within occupations.