How can our industry develop the skills it needs for future growth? How can organizations within our sector identify and respond to changing skills needs in an era of massive labor market disruption? How can we put data at the heart of strategic collaboration between employers, government, and educational institutions to address skills gaps?
These are just a few of the many questions we hear from Professional Associations and Employer Bodies looking to better understand the skills needs of their sector. By analyzing current and emerging skills trends in their sectors, we give them the insights they need to help their members become future-ready, in a number of key areas:
Strategic Workforce Planning: Providing an evidence-base for future talent needs.
Education and Training Alignment: Ensuring training programs meet evolving industry needs.
Policy Development: Supporting government and industry leaders to shape effective workforce policies.
Talent Attraction and Retention: Identifying the best strategies for recruiting and upskilling workers.
Case Study: Life Sciences 2035 – Future Skills Growth
A recent example of our work is a report published by Cogent Skills, the strategic body for skills in the UK science industries. The report, Life Sciences 2035: Developing the Skills for Future Growth, uses Lightcast data to assess the current and future skills needs of the Life Sciences sector.
Key Findings:
Employment in the sector grew by 16% between 2016/17 and 2021/22, far exceeding the national average of 2.4%.
Projected growth in the sector means that there is likely to be around 70,000 new jobs in the industry by 2035.
An additional 75,000 workers will be needed to replace those leaving the workforce by 2035.
The sector requires a broad range of key occupations, from research and regulation to data science and digital roles.
Beyond growth projections, our analysis of Life Sciences job postings revealed:
64% of skills requested by employers are specialized or technical, particularly in STEM-related roles.
36% of skills requested are common or transferable, often linked to managerial positions.
More than half of all job postings mentioned at least one digital skill, compared to 33% across the UK labor market.
AI-related skills appeared in just over 2% of Life Sciences job postings, compared to less than 1% across the broader UK labor market.
Insights Across Industries
The analysis we’ve conducted for the Life Sciences sector can be replicated for other industries and regions. Here are a few examples:
The American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education used Lightcast data to benchmark the tasks performed by pharmacists versus the skills pharmacist employers seek. Their study found a misalignment between the top advertised skills and those emphasized in pharmacy education.
The Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CISMPA) commissioned us to undertake a detailed analysis of recruitment trends, workforce demographics, and skills requirements in the UK’s health and fitness industry. You can find out more here.
The Institute of Physics commissioned us to provide a report on the use of physics skills in the UK and Irish economies, including how they vary across occupations, industries and regions, and whether employers’ needs for physics skills are being met.
We worked with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) – the professional association for Australia’s information and communications technology (ICT) sector – to create a report on their sector, using job postings to give picture of the skills, wages, demand and other trends in the industry.
How Labor Market Analytics Can Drive Industry Success
Whichever sector you represent, here are a number of ways that our insights and analysis can support your organization:
1. Supporting Your Members With Relevant Insight
As we’ve shown with the examples above, we can provide tailored reports that look at things like employment trends, future workforce projections, and skills gaps, to help you develop a data-driven strategy with which to support your members and stakeholders.
2. Building an Evidence-Base for Influencing Policy
We can help you understand how important your sector is to national prosperity, so giving you a solid data-driven basis upon which to lobby policy makers to make positive policy decisions relating to the industry.
3. Future-Proofing Your Sector
With emerging technologies and disruptions transforming job roles, we can offer you a near real-time view of the emerging skills requirements in your sector, so you can help your members as they prepare to build a future-ready workforce.
Why Partner with Lightcast?
If you’re a Professional Association or Employer Body, or even a research team or industry leader looking for deeper insights into workforce trends, we’d love to chat. Get in touch with us to explore how Lightcast can help you unlock the power of labor market analytics to shape the future of your industry.
