What Employers Actually Want

Online job vacancies from a Ukrainian website were explored to assess the skills that employers look for among their new hires. The demand for cognitive, socioemotional, and technical skills across a range of medium- and high-skilled occupations were assessed. Most employers highly demand all three skills categories, more so than education level. Most occupations demand a variety of socioemotional skills, while the demand for cognitive and technical skills focuses on one or two skills. Cognitive and socioemotional skills appear as complementary: they are demanded similarly for a given occupation. Overall, online job vacancies are an informative complement to traditional sources to assess skills in demand.