magnitude. Large economies whose workers could Skill evolution not be included include China, India and Indonesia, however data from these economies is reflected The evolving importance of skills was estimated in fractional estimates reported as percentages, using the question: “For the key roles with a stable according to the data coverage of the Future of outlook, would you expect an increase or decrease Jobs Survey. in the use of the following skills?”. Respondents specified all 26 skills as increasing, decreasing The estimates of the number of employees per or stable in importance over the next five years. sector which can be found in the Industry Profiles Across the report these figures are often presented (p183-236) are based on the full dataset of 1.739 alongside the net difference between the share billion employees worldwide. This calculation is of respondents classifying the skill as increasing described in the user guide to the profiles (p82). in importance and the share classifying it as decreasing in importance, to obtain a single metric per skill. Metrics relating to the Global Skills Taxonomy Reskilling focus The reskilling focus ofstrategic importance surveyed Three survey questions probed the present organizations apply to skills was gauged using the importance of skills, their expected evolution in question: “Keeping in mind your current strategic importance from 2023 to 2027, and the strategic direction, please select the skill clusters on which focus organizations will assign to upskilling and you are focusing your organisation’s reskilling and reskilling their workers in skills from 2023 to 2027. upskilling efforts in the next five years.” For this In each case, respondents selected skills from a question, respondents ranked an unlimited number list of 26 “cross-functional” skills from the Global of the 26 skills according to their importance. These Skills Taxonomy (see Table A2). No attempt was ranks were aggregated using the Borda method to made to represent skills and knowledge which is calculate the “Reskilling ranking” which is used to specialised within industries or occupations. In the order the Skill Profiles. The calculation is outlined case of the first and third questions, skills data are in the user guide to the Skill Profiles (p255). This reported as both raw shares of companies and aggregated ranking is also used to order the skills derived estimates of the mean normalised share of in Figure 4.5, which also represents the difference each skill per respondent. While the former metrics in this ranking with respect to the ranking of skills have the benefit of simplicity, the latter metrics give by their importance, as represented above, and in equal statistical weight to all respondents and sum Figure 4.2. to 100% across the full Global Skills Taxonomy. An equivalent analysis to that for skill importance is Skill importance also performed. At this stage, the rankings assigned by respondents are neglected, and the selected The relative current importance of skills was skills are treated equally. The data are now reported estimated using the question: “What are the as both a raw share of companies selecting each core skills workers currently need to perform skill and a derived metric. The derived metric well in the key roles with a stable outlook?”. The accounts for the fact that respondents were resulting data are reported as both a raw share permitted to select as many or as few skills as they of companies selecting each skill and a derived wished. Each skill receives an equal share of a metric. The derived metric accounts for the fact that respondent’s statistical weight, and all respondents respondents were permitted to select as many or are assigned the same overall weight. The share per as few skills as they wished. In this derived analysis, skill is then the mean taken across the respondents each skill receives an equal share of a respondent’s in a sample. This “normalized strategy share” may statistical weight, and all respondents are assigned be treated as a rough approximation of the mean the same overall weight. The share per skill is composition of organizations’ strategic priorities then the mean taken across the respondents in a and reskilling needs from 2023 to 2027. sample. This “normalized skill share” may be treated as a rough approximation of the cross-functional skill set of workers today. Future of Jobs Report 2023 66