Neighbor News
Is their a "Skill Gap?"
One of the most striking insights evident from report analysis is that job seekers are articulating far too few skills on their resume.
The Key Takeaways
There is a significant mismatch in the skills requirements listed in job postings and those noted in applicant resumes. Individual job ads contain an average of 21.8 skills, while resumes list an average of only 13 skills.
While hard skills dominate the bulk of job ads, soft skills continue to play an essential role for employers. Job ads average just over 5 soft skills, with some occupations including nearly twice that amount. Of the lot, employers across the board continue to value communication skills and are increasingly emphasizing customer service skills.
This mismatch applies to both hard and soft skills. In fact, the data shows that job seekers resumes only match 59 percent of hard skills and 62 percent of soft skills in job ads, which is evidence of the chasm between what employers and applicants see as valuable.
Find out what's happening in New Hope-Lambertvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Blue-collar workers are less successful than white-collar workers in matching their resumes to employers’ stated skills requirements. White-collar job seekers match hard skills 184 percent better and soft skills 42 percent better than blue-collar workers.
One of the most striking insights evident from report analysis is that job seekers are articulating far too few skills on their resume.
Find out what's happening in New Hope-Lambertvillefor free with the latest updates from Patch.
Specifically, individual job ads list an average of 21.8 skills, while resumes list an average of only 13 skills. This mismatch applies to both hard and soft skill averages, with job ads including 16.7 hard skills and resumes including 8, and with the job ads listing 5.2 soft skills compared to the 3.2 on resumes.
Out of 20 skills that most frequently appear in job ads, five skills – multitasking, physical demand, teamwork, retail industry knowledge and positive attitude – do not appear in the top 20 skills listed on resumes. Overall, job seekers are more often touting skills like budgeting, Microsoft Word, and time management in their resumes, even though they are not as sought after in job ads as other skills.
