Random musings: The 10 most in-demand skills of 2019, according to LinkedIn #TBT

Today's blog post was originally published two years ago:

Today's blog post is based on an article from CNBC.

According to the article:

The United States is currently experiencing one of the tightest labor markets in history and many say that the country is currently facing a skills gap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. currently has over 7 million unfilled jobs.

This tight labor market has led many companies to become more open-minded when considering candidates. Companies including Google, Apple, IBM and Bank of America no longer require applicants to have a college degree.

Instead of emphasizing the need for specific titles and experience, organizations are shifting towards a focus on the skills that a potential employee may bring. At tech companies like Facebook, this is especially true.

Employers are looking more for skills than for experience. So, what skills are in demand and where can you get them?

LinkedIn recently analyzed hundreds of thousands of job postings in order to determine which skills companies need most in 2019. They found that employers are looking for workers with both soft skills and hard technical skills and matched these skills with LinkedIn Learning courses that are free for the month of January.

Here are the 5 most in-demand soft skills in 2019:

5. Time Management
4. Adaptability
3. Collaboration
2. Persuasion
1. Creativity

And here are the 5 most in-demand hard skills in 2019:

5. UX Design
4. People Management
3. Analytical Reasoning
2. Artificial Intelligence
1. Cloud Computing

Check out the article on CNBC for a list of the free classes available this month for each skill.

I think the soft skills really came in handy over the past year and I think we'll need to add Zoom proficiency to this list. Here are some posts I wrote about Zoom last year:

The reason Zoom calls drain your energy

How to Elevate Your Presence in a Virtual Meeting

We Live in Zoom Now