American jobs are not what they used to be.
U.S. workers cannot rest on their laurels and expect to still be employed in the same job 10 or even 20 years from now. Employment opportunities increasingly lie in jobs requiring higher-level social or analytical skills, while physical or manual skills are fading in importance, according to a major new report, “The State of American Jobs,” by the Pew Research Center, a nonprofit, Washington, D.C.-based think tank, and released in association with the Markle Foundation, a charitable organization focused on technology, health care, and national security.
Since 1980, employment in jobs requiring stronger social skills — namely interpersonal, communications or management skills — increased by 83% to 90 million. And employment increased 77% to 86 million for jobs requiring higher levels of analytical skills, including critical thinking and computer use. Social skills are crucial in jobs that require a lot of writing, speaking, managing and negotiating, particularly in educational services (which has seen a 105% jump in jobs from 1990 to 2015) and health care and social assistance (up 99% over that period).
