LinkedIn reveals the skills employers want this year in Australia

The most useful skills Aussies need to land a job or succeed at work have been revealed. But one stands out among the rest.

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Exclusive: Creativity has been ranked the most useful skill of the year, with employers snapping up jobseekers who can think outside the box.

A LinkedIn analysis of 10 million Australian profiles revealed it was the most-sought soft skill, followed by teamwork, persuasion, adaptability and time management.

LinkedIn Learning Solutions senior director for Asia Pacific Jason Laufer said organisations needed people who could take a new approach to tasks.

“This could be (applied to anyone from) software engineers to HR practitioners,” he said.

“How do you bring new ideas to the table to help organisations in the industry today?

“Businesses see soft skills or human skills are just as important as hard skills, in fact 50 per cent believe soft skills are more important than hard skills.”

**SCROLL DOWN FOR FULL LIST OF SOFT AND HARD SKILLS**

Jason Laufer says employers value soft skills as much as hard skills. Picture: Supplied

Futurist Anders Sorman-Nilsson believed creativity would be a priority for many years to come, saying its place at the top of the list was “absolutely spot on”.

“In an age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, we notice machines and AI are becoming very sophisticated at left brain skills – things like logic, sequence, mathematics, process, big data pattern recognition,” he said.

“It would be very futile for humans to try and outdo the machines with left brain skills so what remains is more right brain skills – the humanistic skills like creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, interpersonal skills, even sustainability and emotional intelligence.

“They are the skills humans should be focusing on.”

Fashion retailer Culture Kings is currently advertising for a TikTok content creator – a role which would not have even existed a year ago before the video-sharing platform became a staple of Gen Z social media.

Culture Kings marketing manager Kate Atkinson said creativity was a lot more important for the role than any university degree.

It was even open to high school students.

TikTok content creator is a dream job for Gen Z jobseekers. Picture: Supplied

“The content would need to be engaging for the platform so we want someone familiar with TikTok and with experience creating their own content,” she said.

“If that’s someone who has experience in marketing and media, perfect, but if they don’t have that background but feel they are able to do this, that’s fine, too.

“A youthful perspective is in line with our demographics so they need to make sure they are in the know, know what’s up and have their finger on the pulse of what’s trending.

“If we find someone that can also take on other responsibilities in the team, it could be a full-time (role) but if they are school-aged, it could be a part-time thing after school and on weekends.”

Ms Atkinson said creativity was an important skill to bring to a workplace as “that’s how we add value”.

“Robots can take over roles in the future but that creativity element is something they can’t do,” she said.

“What can we do to make things better and think outside of the box? What’s a creative solution? As we are becoming more efficient with technology, creativity is the best way to add that value.”

Futurist Anders Sorman-Nilsson says creativity is likely to top the list well into the future. Picture: Supplied

But soft skills are not the only skills in demand this year in Australia.

The LinkedIn report also identified the 10 hard skills most sought by employers, with blockchain topping the list despite not even ranking last year.

It was followed by analytic reasoning, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, translation, scientific computing, investor relations, customer service systems, UX (user experience) design and competitive strategies.

To encourage Australians to upskill in the skills employers seek, LinkedIn Learning has made a selection of its related online short courses available for free until the end of January.

They range from “Banish Your Inner Critic to Unleash Creativity” through to “Parallel and

Concurrent Programming with Python 1”.

READ MORE EMPLOYMENT NEWS IN THE CAREERS SECTION OF SATURDAY’S THE COURIER-MAIL, THE ADVERTISER, THE HERALD SUN AND THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Originally published as LinkedIn reveals the skills employers want this year in Australia