Mapping the Genome of Jobs:

Mapping the Genome of Jobs: The Burning Glass Skills Taxonomy

When using real-time labor data, a skills taxonomy is crucial: it is how you take the tremendous amount of data available from job postings and turn it into actionable insights. In this white paper, Mapping the Genome of Jobs, we look at how an effective taxonomy allows for detailed analysis of the job market at the level of individual skills.

As the pace of change in the labor market increases, skills are being mixed and matched in new combinations, both in occupations old and new. As a result, skill requirements are shifting faster than job titles can keep up. Two software developers, for example, may require dramatically different skillsets – one may need to know basic Java, another deep learning. Skills, in effect, provide the DNA for both jobs and the overall job market – and the change in skillsets is rewriting that DNA at breakneck speed.

Burning Glass has developed a single global skills taxonomy to make sense of the data, based on 20 years of experience and tested under real-world job market conditions. We can track how the skill requirements for a given job are evolving, how skill requirements differ from industry to industry – and even within the same occupation – as well as which skills are growing fastest, and which skills are most valuable to employers. This approach makes Burning Glass’ skill taxonomy uniquely actionable across a range of audiences, including job seekers, students, educators, employers, and researchers.

Find out how our taxonomy powers our products, and how it can provide insight to employers, educators, and government officials by downloading our free white paper.