LinkedIn today reveals the most in-demand skills in the UK in 2014, based on hiring and recruiting activity on the professional network.
LinkedIn analysed the skills and experience data of its 330 million members worldwide to identify the skill categories that belonged to those members that had either changed employer or appeared in a recruiter’s search during 2014.
Key findings for the UK included:
- STEM and data – science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills dominate the UK top 25, particularly those relating to data storage, retrieval, and analysis as organisations across a broad range of industries seek to harness the benefits of big data
- Speak the language – “Foreign language translation” came in at number nine, demonstrating the increasingly global nature of business
- Rising confidence? – There are also signs of increasing economic confidence as organisations boost their talent acquisition resources, with “Recruiting” coming in at number 17
The full top 25 list, and further information as to the methodology used to compile it, is copied below.
The 25 hottest skills that got people hired in 2014 (UK):
1. Statistical analysis and data mining
2. Middleware and integration software
3. Business intelligence
4. Storage systems and management
5. Perl/ Ruby/ Python
6. Mobile development
7. Network and information security
8. SEO/ SEM marketing
9. Foreign language translation
10. Java development
11. Data presentation
12. Web architecture and development framework
13. Public policy and international relations
14. C/ C++
15. Algorithmic design
16. Integrated circuit design
17. Recruiting
18. Corporate law and governance
19. SAP ERP systems
20. Economics
21. Data engineering and data warehousing
22. Data management and software
23. Mining and commodities
24. Marketing campaign management
25. User interface design
Methodology
The results of this analysis represent the world seen through the lens of LinkedIn data. As such, it is influenced by how members choose to use the site, which can vary based on professional, social, and regional culture, as well as overall site availability and accessibility. These variances were not accounted for in the analysis.
Because there are thousands of individual skills that members can put on their profiles, skills have been grouped into several dozen categories. For example, skills such as “Android” or “iOS” would be categorised under “Mobile development”.
From there, we looked at all of the hiring and recruiting activity that happened on LinkedIn in the past year, and identified the skill categories that belonged to members who were more likely to start new jobs and receive interest from recruiters.