IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/121450.html

What skills pay more? The changing demand and return to skills for professional workers

Author

Listed:
  • Josten, Cecily
  • Krause, Helen
  • Lordan, Grace
  • Yeung, Brian

Abstract

Technology is disrupting labor markets. We analyze the demand and reward for skills at occupation and state level across two time periods using job postings. First, we use principal components analysis to derive nine skills groups: ‘collaborative leader’, ‘interpersonal & organized’, ‘big data’, ‘cloud computing’, ‘programming’, ‘machine learning’, ‘research’, ‘math’ and ‘analytical’. Second, we comment on changes in the price and demand for skills over time. Third, we analyze non-linear returns to all skills groups and their interactions. We find that ‘collaborative leader’ skills become significant over time and that legacy data skills are replaced over time by innovative ones.

Suggested Citation

  • Josten, Cecily & Krause, Helen & Lordan, Grace & Yeung, Brian, 2024. "What skills pay more? The changing demand and return to skills for professional workers," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 121450, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:121450
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/121450/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Per-Anders Edin & Peter Fredriksson & Martin Nybom & Björn Öckert, 2022. "The Rising Return to Noncognitive Skill," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 78-100, April.
    2. Grace Lordan & Jörn‐Steffen Pischke, 2022. "Does Rosie Like Riveting? Male and Female Occupational Choices," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 89(353), pages 110-130, January.
    3. Lea Samek & Mariagrazia Squicciarini & Emile Cammeraat, 2021. "The human capital behind AI: Jobs and skills demand from online job postings," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Policy Papers 120, OECD Publishing.
    4. Dingel, Jonathan I. & Neiman, Brent, 2020. "How many jobs can be done at home?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    5. Brad Hershbein & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Do Recessions Accelerate Routine-Biased Technological Change? Evidence from Vacancy Postings," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(7), pages 1737-1772, July.
    6. Catherine J. Weinberger, 2014. "The Increasing Complementarity between Cognitive and Social Skills," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(5), pages 849-861, December.
    7. Mariagrazia Squicciarini & Heike Nachtigall, 2021. "Demand for AI skills in jobs: Evidence from online job postings," OECD Science, Technology and Industry Working Papers 2021/03, OECD Publishing.
    8. James Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto & Peter Savelyev, 2013. "Understanding the Mechanisms through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2052-2086, October.
    9. Ziegler, Lennart, 2021. "Skill Demand and Wages. Evidence from Linked Vacancy Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14511, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Alicia Sasser Modestino & Daniel Shoag & Joshua Ballance, 2020. "Upskilling: Do Employers Demand Greater Skill When Workers Are Plentiful?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 102(4), pages 793-805, October.
    11. Matthias Collischon, 2020. "The Returns to Personality Traits Across the Wage Distribution," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 34(1), pages 48-79, March.
    12. Heineck, Guido & Anger, Silke, 2010. "The returns to cognitive abilities and personality traits in Germany," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 535-546, June.
    13. David J Deming & Kadeem Noray, 2020. "Earnings Dynamics, Changing Job Skills, and STEM Careers," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(4), pages 1965-2005.
    14. David Deming & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Skill Requirements across Firms and Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings for Professionals," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 337-369.
    15. R. Jason Faberman & Marianna Kudlyak, 2016. "What Does Online Job Search Tell Us about the Labor Market?," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue 1, pages 1-15.
    16. Peter Q. Blair & David J. Deming, 2020. "Structural Increases in Skill Demand after the Great Recession," NBER Working Papers 26680, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Alekseeva, Liudmila & Azar, José & Giné, Mireia & Samila, Sampsa & Taska, Bledi, 2021. "The demand for AI skills in the labor market," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    18. David J. Deming, 2017. "The Growing Importance of Social Skills in the Labor Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(4), pages 1593-1640.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Skills and Earnings: A Multidimensional Perspective on Human Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 11428, CESifo.
    3. Laura Platkowska-Prokopczyk & Nataliia Boichuk & Theranda Beqiri, 2024. "Integrating Business Simulations into Academic Innovation: Expectations and Implementation in a Case Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3), pages 828-851.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arendt, Lukasz & Gałecka-Burdziak, Ewa & Núñez, Fernando & Pater, Robert & Usabiaga, Carlos, 2023. "Skills requirements across task-content groups in Poland: What online job offers tell us," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    2. Christina Langer & Simon Wiederhold, 2023. "The Value of Early-Career Skills," Working Papers 222, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    3. Schultheiss, Tobias & Pfister, Curdin & Gnehm, Ann-Sophie & Backes-Gellner, Uschi, 2023. "Education expansion and high-skill job opportunities for workers: Does a rising tide lift all boats?," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    4. Hemelt, Steven W. & Hershbein, Brad & Martin, Shawn & Stange, Kevin M., 2023. "College majors and skills: Evidence from the universe of online job ads," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Daly, Moira & Groes, Fane & Jensen, Mathias Fjællegaard, 2025. "Skill demand versus skill use: Comparing job posts with individual skill use on the job," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    6. Verónica Escudero & Hannah Liepmann & Ana Podjanin, 2024. "Using Online Vacancy and Job Applicants' Data to Study Skills Dynamics," Research in Labor Economics, in: Big Data Applications in Labor Economics, Part B, volume 52, pages 35-99, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    7. Maciej Berk{e}sewicz & Herman Cherniaiev & Robert Pater, 2021. "Estimating the number of entities with vacancies using administrative and online data," Papers 2106.03263, arXiv.org.
    8. Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Skills and Earnings: A Multidimensional Perspective on Human Capital," CESifo Working Paper Series 11428, CESifo.
    9. Usabiaga, Carlos & Núñez, Fernando & Arendt, Lukasz & Gałecka-Burdziak, Ewa & Pater, Robert, 2022. "Skill requirements and labour polarisation: An association analysis based on Polish online job offers," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    10. David J. Deming & Mikko I. Silliman, 2024. "Skills and Human Capital in the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 32908, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Laible, Marie-Christine & Anger, Silke & Baumann, Martina, 2020. "Personality Traits and Further Training," IAB-Discussion Paper 202034, Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (IAB), Nürnberg [Institute for Employment Research, Nuremberg, Germany].
    12. David Evans & Claire Mason & Haohui Chen & Andrew Reeson, 2024. "Accelerated demand for interpersonal skills in the Australian post-pandemic labour market," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(1), pages 32-42, January.
    13. Kapelyuk, Sergey & Karelin, Iliya, 2023. "Digital Skills: Classification, Empirical Estimates of the Demand," MPRA Paper 119644, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Justine Herve & Helene Purcell & Subha Mani, 2023. "Conscientiousness Matters: How does Personality affect Labor Market Outcomes?," Fordham Economics Discussion Paper Series dp2023-05er:dp2023-05, Fordham University, Department of Economics.
    15. David Deming & Lisa B. Kahn, 2018. "Skill Requirements across Firms and Labor Markets: Evidence from Job Postings for Professionals," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 36(S1), pages 337-369.
    16. David Dorn & Florian Schoner & Moritz Seebacher & Lisa Simon & Ludger Woessmann, 2024. "Multidimensional Skills on LinkedIn Profiles: Measuring Human Capital and the Gender Skill Gap," Papers 2409.18638, arXiv.org, revised May 2025.
    17. Blanas, Sotiris & Oikonomou, Rigas, 2023. "COVID-induced economic uncertainty, tasks and occupational demand," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. Enghin Atalay & Sebastian Sotelo & Daniel Tannenbaum, 2024. "The Geography of Job Tasks," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(4), pages 979-1008.
    19. Ziqiao Ao & Gergely Horvath & Chunyuan Sheng & Yifan Song & Yutong Sun, 2022. "Skill requirements in job advertisements: A comparison of skill-categorization methods based on explanatory power in wage regressions," Papers 2207.12834, arXiv.org.
    20. Anderlik Jasmin & Jumaniyozova Malika & Schmidpeter Bernhard & Winter-Ebmer Rudolf, 2025. "Monopsony: Wages, Wage Bargaining and Job Requirements," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 26(4), pages 395-420.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:121450. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.