In an effort to bridge the skills gap and aid economic recovery, Congress and the President passed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which will reform and support job training for the US workforce. In this Act, schools and workforce boards will be able to offer skills training that matches demand in their region. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act requires programs to work with local employers in creating training that caters to their needs and providing internship and apprenticeship opportunities. With this Act taking effect, we wondered what types of skills may need to be trained? We reviewed the "hard" or technical skills that were most in-demand throughout the US, based on data from WANTED Analytics. We also examined the demand, candidate supply, demand pressure, and hiring difficulty for each of these skill sets.  

Most In-Demand Skills in the US

Source: WANTED Analytics

Quality assurance was the most commonly advertised skill set by employers in the US, followed by bilingual and Structured Query Language. Employers are likely to face the most challenges recruiting candidates that have the IT skills listed. Java, SQL, software development, and LINUX score between 76 and 80 on our Hiring Scale, indicating very difficult recruiting conditions. Our Hiring Scale considers the location, national and local employment conditions, demand, supply, among other factors to determine hiring difficulty. Hiring Scale scores ranges from 1 to 99, with 99 indicating hardest-to-recruit. Of the skills listed, quality control had the lowest number of qualified candidates per job ad, 25. However, compared to the other skills, the Hiring Scale score for this skill set was lower, meaning less challenging recruiting conditions are likely. The skill with the least difficult recruiting conditions was bilingual. That doesn't mean that providing bilingual training shouldn't be an area of focus for some locations. Recruiting conditions and demand pressure (the number of qualified candidates in the US workforce per unique job ad) are likely to vary depending on the area. The hiring difficulty for bilingual skills is greater in the Manchester-Nashua (NH) metro area. This location scores a 67 on our Hiring Scale. It may be worthwhile for workforce boards in this area to incorporate bilingual training in their programs if employers are experiencing difficulty finding qualified talent. 

Hiring Scale for Bilingual Speaking Skills in the US and Manchester, NH

Source: WANTED Analytics

If these skills are added to training programs throughout the US, employers may be able to reduce the skills gap. How do you think this will impact the future candidate supply?