New Research with America Succeeds Tracks The Growing Demand for Durable Skills

Building on research originally launched in 2021, Lightcast recently provided analysis of over 75 million employer job postings for America Succeeds’ ongoing Durable Skills initiative. The findings have now been released in their latest report, Durable by Design: An Update on the High Demand for Durable Skills. 

The key takeaway is clear: At a time when technology is rapidly evolving and AI is disrupting the workforce, uniquely human skills and competencies – what America Succeeds calls “durable skills,” like communication, leadership, and problem solving – are more in-demand than ever.

• 76% of all job postings now request at least one durable skill

• 47% request three or more — up 13 points since 2021

• 8 of the top 10 most requested skills today are durable skills

From Insight to Action

For education providers and workforce professionals, Durable by Design serves as a timely reminder that helping individuals develop and articulate these human skills is a critical part of preparing them for career success. It also demonstrates the power of data to bring clarity and direction when navigating a complex labor market.

That’s why Lightcast offers tools and professional services to help you align learning content and training programs with the unique needs of employers – from durable skills to emerging technical skills – in your own community.

• Analyst and Developer provide comprehensive labor market analytics for higher ed and the public sector respectively, making it easier than ever to track hiring demand, wages, skills, employers, and demographics for your region.

• Skillabi lets you validate and improve the alignment of your institution’s learning outcomes and program content to the skills needed for relevant high-growth occupations.

• The economists and researchers on our professional services team are ready to provide customized analysis to help your institution or organization answer critical questions about regional skill needs, talent strategies, and aligning education with career opportunity.

Ready to move forward? Contact Lightcast today to tell us your priorities and goals – we’ll get to work providing the data and insight you need to achieve them.

Preview the Preface to Durable by Design

To help frame the findings of the report and their signifcance for today’s labor market, Lightcast provided the following preface for Durable by Design (see page 3):

At Lightcast, we recognize that skills are the currency of today’s labor market – the most powerful way to connect people with opportunity, education with employability, and employers with the talent they need to thrive. 

But too often, the spotlight only shines on the technical skills: those that are closely connected to the latest technology or emerging industry threatening to disrupt the world of work. And of course, that matters. In reality though, it’s the timeless things that often matter most. And human skills – or, as America Succeeds calls them, “durable skills,” like communication, leadership, and problem solving – are no exception. 

In fact, the rapid evolution of technology today actually amplifies rather than diminishes the need for durable skills. How do we know? The data shows it.

The Durable Skills Framework, developed by America Succeeds, is based on the set of durable skills identified in partnership with Lightcast as most prominent throughout the job market. Updated Lightcast Data continues to provide compelling evidence that employer demand for these skills is not only enduring, but growing across every kind of industry and occupation. In fact, some of the strongest growth in demand has occurred in highly technical fields like finance and engineering.

That insight, and the many others like it that you’ll find in this report, is exactly why skills data matters. It helps us cut through assumptions and headlines to understand what employers actually value, and what students and job seekers need to succeed. By quantifying the importance of durable skills, this research can inform educators, employers, and policymakers as they work together to build clearer pathways to opportunity for all.

Lightcast is proud to support this important work and excited to amplify durable skills as foundational for long-term career success, and vital to the development of a future-ready workforce.

—The Lightcast Team

To learn more about trends affecting the global labor market like AI, labor shortages, and geopolitics, read our latest research, Fault Lines.