In an increasingly fast-paced world, the job market can change very quickly. It can be difficult to know exactly what skills are most sought after by European employers – and this varies across the EU. To provide some insight on this topic, Eurostat has released a new interactive data visualisation tool that shows the most in demand skills in online job advertisements (OJAs)for a selection of occupations within the EU.
The tool aims to serve students deciding on their study paths, jobholders looking to keep their skillset up to date or change positions, and unemployed people searching for a job. It can also offer interesting information to recruiting companies about the demand for skills in the labour market. This new tool was released in conjunction to the European Year of Skills.
You can select an occupation that interests you and see the skills that are most frequently requested in OJAs posted each year between 2019 and 2022.
The tool features different visualisations, including a top 10 skills ranking and the evolution of the demand for each skill from 2019 to 2022. In addition to the overview of all skills, you can display them into three different sub-categories: general; specific; and digital skills.
General skills are sought after in all occupation types, and mainly embrace soft skills such as working in teams, developing creative ideas and English language knowledge. For specific skills, there are close links to specific occupations or the sector where a limited range of occupations is predominant, e.g. use food preparation techniques for artistic, cultural and culinary associate professionals. Digital skills are connected to coding or simply – and still the most frequently sought after skill in many OJAs across the EU – the use of Microsoft Office.
For more information watch the livestream of our online webinar, which gives a thorough introduction to the top and trending skills tool. Here, you will learn more about the development of the skills tool by our experts, and how you can navigate it to find useful information on the skills demand in Europe.
The content for this article is based on an article first published on 14 December 2023.
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