The European Skills Transformation Index

About the European Skills Transformation Index

The world of work is increasingly defined not by qualifications and job titles, but by the skills that people possess and the skills that employers are looking for. Recognition of this has been behind the European Commission dubbing 2023 the "Year of Skills". But how much are workforce skills changing and how does change differ between occupations, industries and companies? Using our unparalleled job postings data and skills insights, we've identified some key metrics that shed light on these questions in the European labour market, which you'll find below in three sections:

THE SKILLS INDEX

An index of occupations across 10 Western European countries, ranked according to change in their skills composition over the last year.

IN-DEMAND SKILLS

A deep-dive looking at the most in-demand specialised skills requested by employers for the top 10 occupations from the Index.

INDUSTRY FOCUS

A comparison of the in-demand skills sought by some of the top companies in five key industries in the European labour market.

Skills Keep Shifting: 33% of UK Skills are New Since 2021

Explore the Data

The Skills Index

The Skills Index measures how occupations across 9 EU countries - Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland - plus the UK, have changed in terms of employer skills requirements. To calculate this, we analysed the change in skill share for every 4-digit ISCO occupation between 2021 and 2022, and indexed them from 0-100 according to skills change. The higher the ranking, the higher the level of skills change.

The chart below shows the top 25 occupations from the Index, organised under their 1-digit ISCO Classification, which you can filter by clicking on the dropdown. Most of the top ranked occupations are in the Professionals Occupation Group, particularly in digital roles such as Software Developers, Systems Analysts, and Web & Multimedia Developers. This is perhaps unsurprising, given the fast pace of change in digital technology, but it does give rise to questions about which digital skills are in-demand. You’ll find more about that in the In-Demand Skills section below, and you can also check out our blogs that deal with this topic in-depth here, here, and here.

In-Demand Skills

In the section below, we've done a deep dive into each of the top 10 occupations from the Index, identifying the top 20 specialised skills requested by employers across the 10 countries in 2022, according to the proportion of job postings they appear in. For example, computer science appeared in 21.2% of all job postings for Software Developers.

Click on the dropdown to check out each occupation, and move your cursor over the bars to find out which skills group and skills subcategory they belong to. You can find out more about Lightcast skills taxonomies here.

Industry Focus

In the sections below, we look at 10 of the biggest companies within some of Europe's most important sectors: Advanced Manufacturing; Consulting; Energy; Finance; and Pharmaceutical. Each section has three charts:

Chart 1: The proportion of job postings for each company, relative to the total number of online job postings across all of the 10 companies in 2022.
Chart 2: The top 10 occupations each company was hiring for in 2022, measured by the proportion of job postings each occupation made up of the company's total postings.
Chart 3: The top 20 skills for a key occupation, benchmarked to the average across the 10 companies, helping us see the relative importance each company places on these skills.

Advanced Manufacturing

This section looks at the following European Advanced Manufacturing giants: Airbus; Alstom; BAE Systems; Bosch; Continental; Jaguar Land Rover; Mercedes-Benz; Siemens; Thales; and Volkswagen. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, Siemens had the largest share of postings, accounting for 23.8% of the total, followed by Bosch with 20.1%, and Thales with 14.7%.
Three occupations appear in the top 10 in-demand occupations for all companies: Engineering Professionals, Software Developers, and Systems Analysts.
Some occupations appear in the top 10s for just one company including Product Graders and Testers (Jaguar Land Rover); and Applications Programmers (Thales).
Above average skills demand for Software Developers include: Alstom and Jaguar Land Rover (agile methodology); BAE (software engineering).

Consulting

This section looks at 10 of the biggest consulting firms operating in the European market: Accenture; Bearingpoint; Boston Consulting Group; CGI; Capgemini; Deloitte; Ernst & Young; KPMG; McKinsey; and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, PWC had the largest share of postings, accounting for 16.1% of the total, followed by Capgemini and KPMG, both with 15.3%.
Two occupations appear in the top 10 in-demand occupations for all companies: Management & Organisation Analysts; and Systems Analysts.
Occupations appearing in the top 10 for just one company include: Database Designers & Administrators (CGI); and Policy Administration Professionals (McKinsey).
Above average skills demand for Consulting Analysts include: CGI (digital transformation); KPMG (economics); and Deloitte (auditing).

Energy

This section looks at the following European energy companies: BP; E.ON Group; EnBW; ENGIE; Eni; RWE; Shell; Total Energies; Vattenfall; and Vestas. Here are some of the key takeaways:

Of the 10 companies, ENGIE had by far the largest share of postings, accounting for 47.8% of the total, followed by E.ON Group with 15.9%, and BP with 11.6%.
Three occupations appear in the top 10 occupations for eight of the 10 companies: Business Services & Administration Managers; Engineering Professionals; and Systems Analysts.
Some occupations appear in the top 10s for one company, including Chemical Engineers (BP); Chemists (Eni); and Authors & Related Writers (Shell).
Above average skills demand for Engineering Professionals include: Total Energies (natural gas); E.ON (energy transformation); and Vestas (wind turbines).

Finance

This section looks at the following key players in European Finance: Allianz; AXA; BNP Paribas; Crédit Agricole; Deutsche Bank; HSBC; ING; Santander; Société Générale; and UBS. Key takeaways include:

Of the 10 companies, BNP Paribas had the largest share of postings, accounting for 19.7% of the total, followed by AXA with 14.6%, and Santander and Société Générale with 11.3%.
Systems Analysts appears in the top 10 in-demand occupations for all companies, whilst Financial & Investment Advisers appears in nine, and Accountants in eight.
Occupations in the top 10 for just one company include: Bank Tellers & Related Clerks (Deutsche Bank); Buyers (AXA); and Valuers & Loss Assessors (Allianz).
Above average skills demand for Financial Advisors and Analysts include: Allianz (investments); Société Générale (wealth management); and HSBC (retail banking).

Pharmaceutical

Here we've chosen the following 10 pharmaceutical companies operating in the European market: AbbVie; AstraZeneca; Bayer; Biontech; Johnson & Johnson; Merck; Novartis; Roche; Sanofi; and Thermo Fisher. Key takeaways include:

Of the 10 companies, Sanofi had the largest share of postings, accounting for 17.6% of the total, followed by Johnson & Johnson with 16.5%, and Roche with 10.8%.
Advertising & Marketing Professionals; Sales & Marketing Managers; and Systems Analysts are in the top 10 in-demand occupations for nine companies.
Occupations appearing in the top 10s for one company including Chemical Engineers (Biontech); Valuers & Loss Assessors (Roche); and Accountants (Bayer).
Above average skills demand for Biological Science Professionals include: Biontech (mRNAs); Novartis (pharmaceuticals); Merck (good manufacturing practices).

Blog10.27.2023