Durable Skills are a combination of how you use what you know — skills like critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity — as well as character skills like resilience and leadership.
In our latest report, ‘The High Demand for Durable Skills’, we explored labor market insight data – 82 million job postings – with Emsi Burning Glass, and what we found was impressive. Simply put, the demand for Durable Skills transcends a person’s career path, educational attainment, or geographic location. Our research clearly demonstrates the importance of students developing Durable skills while still in school.
We’ve broken down our findings by state, industry, job sector, and even by company. There’s a lot to learn – data geeks could pore over the research for days. To give you just a sample, we’ve pulled together a Top-Five list of our favorite insights so far:
Seven out of the ten most-requested skills in job postings are Durable Skills. 
Employers seek these skills nearly four times more frequently than the top five technical or hard skills. 
Over 29 million job postings requested at least three Durable Skills. 
61% of all US job postings in the last two years requested at least one Durable Skill. 
Demand is greatest in jobs more aligned to the future of work: 91% of management jobs, 86% of business operations jobs, and 81% of engineering jobs demand Durable Skills.
About ‘The High Demand for Durable Skills’
Students – every student – can be prepared for the future when they acquire Durable Skills. By focusing on the development of these common competencies in K-12 education, we can transform career pathways for the benefit of students, employers, and communities.
In this report, we explore how our labor market insight data, discovered with Emsi Burning Glass, can be used to accelerate that transformation. Analysis of over 82 million job postings clearly demonstrates the workforce demand for Durable Skills across industries, occupations, and geographies. The time has come to act – businesses, educators, state leaders, and community members need to all play a role in that. It is our hope that this data informs that work and helps us achieve our goal of ensuring today’s students have the chance to succeed in whatever future they choose.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to read our report yet, please download it here, and get involved in our Durable Skills initiative.
