The Hybrid Job Economy: How New Skills are Rewriting the DNA of the Job Market
Copyright 2019 © Burning Glass Technologies 4 ▪
by people. In fact, the research shows that 42% of all jobs can be automated, but only 12% of
highly hybrid jobs fall into this category.
What are the skills you need to build to adapt? They fall into four broad areas.
First, you must develop skills in digital tools and digital technology. We are all being
“augmented” by machines, so your ability to learn new systems, configure and customize
these tools, and code them, if necessarily, is critical. So don’t be afraid to learn how to build a
macro or customize a system to your needs: that’s your human value-add. Marketing
managers who know SQL, for example, make 41% more money than those who do not.
Second, you must become comfortable with analytics and data. Of all the skills we see
growing, data analytics, including interpretation, visualization, and communication, is one of
the most important. Every one of these high-paying jobs (customer service manager, health
care advisor, sales professional) requires facility with analytics and data.
Third, you must understand the fundamentals of business and management. One in three IT
jobs now require management and business skills. A total of 57% of engineering positions
now require business and leadership skills. In fact, overall, jobs that include business
management and process experience have an average salary premium of 19%. And workers
who have experience in project management make 21% more than those who do not.
Fourth, you must now think like a designer or creative. More than half (54%) of all IT jobs
now require some form of digital design. More than one-quarter (26%) of technology jobs
now require design – as well as 815,000 job openings last year outside of IT, in fields that
span from business analysis to finance to manufacturing. Meanwhile, jobs as user interface
or other types of design are growing at 35% per year. While machines can often automate
and recommend decisions or even analyze data, we need people to design the user
experiences, systems, and platforms that we use every day.
Even technologists are not immune from these changes. Today, the hottest skills in demand
are in machine learning, R, and new coding tools. Software engineers who don’t keep up also
see their salaries plateau, so even the most technical professionals have to keep up.
In some ways, this is how jobs and careers have always evolved. Automation changes every
job over time, and if we don’t continuously move up the “human value curve” we can fall
behind. The typist who worked in the steno pool in the 1970s became an executive assistant
in the 1980s and 1990s and is now a customer service agent or sales support specialist
today.
What’s different this time, however, is not only the pace of change but also the way that roles
are being transformed by skills from unrelated functions workers aren’t likely to have picked
up on the job. The marketing manager who now needs to build a customer database will
need to be purposeful about learning SQL.