The Lightcast Digital Skills Outlook 2024

About The Lightcast Digital Skills Outlook 2024

The digital revolution is affecting labour markets in profound ways, both in terms of specialised IT jobs where the constant emergence of new technologies guarantees change, and on a more general level, with most jobs now requiring competence in basic computer software. Research from the US-based National Skills Coalition suggested that 92% of jobs now require at least some digital skills, while a 2023 Gallup and Amazon study, which used Lightcast data, found the total annual global value of digital skills to be around $18.5 trillion – 12% of global GDP. Yet although digital skills are clearly vital, there are often large gaps between the expectations of employers regarding digital skills and what they are finding in the labour market. For instance, according to the European Commission, 70% of businesses in Europe have said that a lack of digital skills is an obstacle to investment, and 40% of adults in Europe lack basic digital skills.

The prerequisite to closing these digital skills gaps is to first understand what it is that employers need. The Lightcast Digital Skills Outlook 2024 is a highly interactive page that uses our unparalleled skills insights to highlight a number of key trends in the digital skills revolution across 15 global labour markets we are working in. The Outlook is split into three main sections, followed by a Methodology, Data and Tools section, and the chance to get a free report with even

CHANGING SKILLS

What are the top digital skills being requested by employers? Which are growing fastest? And perhaps most pertinent to understanding future skills, which ones are emerging? In the charts below, we bring data to bear on all these questions across the 15 labour markets. Key takeaways include: • The most in-demand digital skill across all 15 countries is Microsoft Office, followed by Microsoft Excel and SAP applications. The country with the highest percentage of job adverts mentioning Microsoft Office is Germany at 15.72%. • Across the 15 countries, the fastest growing digital skill is search engine marketing, which grew by 255% in 2023. This is followed by Microsoft 365 (195% growth), and digital literacy (184%). • Among the emerging skills across the 15 countries are a number that we've heard so much about in the last year or so, such as Metaverse (7,137%) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (6,477%).

CITY HOTSPOTS

In this section we go beyond countries to look at digital skills demand at the city level (we've picked the top metropolitan areas in each country with populations above 150,000). First, there's a chart plotting the percentage of total job postings mentioning digital skills. Secondly, there's a map giving details about the Location Quotient – or relative concentration – of digital skills in each city. For an explanation of Location Quotient, check out the City Hotspots section in Methodology, Data and Tools. Points of interest from the chart include: • Germany sits at the top, with 57.04% and 55.77% of job postings in Munich and Frankfurt mentioning digital skills, while the UK is at the bottom, with London on just 34.75%. • Some of these variations may be explained by local, cultural reasons. For instance, German employers, unlike in the UK, are legally obliged to mention qualifications for most jobs. • There are interesting in-country variations. In Austria, for example, we see a big variation between Vienna (52.03%), and Linz, Graz and Salzburg, which are all under 40%. • By contrast in Italy, the variation is much smaller, with Milan, Rome, Turin, Naples and Palermo all having a share of postings mentioning digital skills within a 38-42% range.

OCCUPATION FOCUS

The section below looks at demand for digital skills across five occupations: Applications Programmers, Systems Analysts, Web Developers, Finance Managers, and Graphic Designers. Whilst the first three are specifically IT occupations, the last two are non-IT, showing that digital skills are required by employers across the whole labour market. Each occupation includes: • The International Labour Organization's definition of each ISCO occupation. • Three key findings brought out by the skills data in our cross-country comparison. • The top 20 digital skills, with each country compared to the average according to the relative size of each circle.

Applications Programmers

Applications programmers write and maintain programmable code outlined in technical instructions and specifications for software applications and operating systems. Key findings from our data include: • The top three in-demand skills across all countries are computer science, which appeared in 14.38% of all job postings for the role in 2023, Java (programming language) (12.89%), and software development (12.30%). • The top three above-average skills at the national level are application development in Germany (32.49% vs 5.62% average), computer science in Germany (32.05% vs 14.38%), and Java in Portugal (27.71% vs 12.89%).

Finance Managers

Finance managers plan, direct and coordinate the financial operations of an enterprise or organization, in consultation with senior managers and with managers of other departments or sections, or of enterprises that provide financial services to other enterprises and organizations. Key findings include: • The top three in-demand skills across all countries are Microsoft Excel, which appeared in 14.68% of all job postings for the role in 2023, forecasting (12.82%), and Microsoft Office (10.26%). • The top three above-average skills at the national level are Microsoft Office in Germany (26.54% vs 10.26% average), dashboard in France (12.48% vs 2.17%), and Microsoft Excel in Spain (23.52% vs 14.68%).

Graphic Designers

Graphic and multimedia designers design visual and audio-visual content for the communication of information using print, film, electronic, digital and other forms of visual and audio media. They create graphics, special effects, animation or other visual images for use in computer games, movies, music videos, print media and advertisements. Key findings include: • The top three in-demand skills across all countries all relate to Adobe products, with the first being Adobe Photoshop, which appeared in 19.04% of all job postings for the role in 2023, followed by Illustrator (16.60%) and InDesign (13.68%) • The top three above-average skills at the national level are Adobe Photoshop in Italy (39.16% vs 19.04% average), Adobe Illustrator in Italy (36.25% vs 16.60%), and User Experience (UX) Design in Portugal (24.12% vs 7.72%).

Methodology, Data & Tools

In this section, you'll find details of the methodology behind the charts and map, the data that underpins it all, and the tools we used to extract this data. Excitingly, the tools and data are available for purchase. If you'd like to talk to someone about how you can access these, click the button below and we'll be in touch shortly.