Qualifications or Soft Skills? Studying Job Advertisements for Demand for Low-Skilled Staff in Slovakia

<p>NEUJOBS Working Paper No. D. 4.3.3</p> <p>Abstract:<br>This paper analyses job advertisements to identify the specific skills and characteristics that are demanded in the Slovak labour market in selected low- and medium-skilled occupations in different sectors. It is innovative in exploring online job advertisement data and in quantifying the different skills, personal attributes and characteristics requested by employers.</p> <p>The authors find that Slovak employers are fairly demanding in the low- and medium-level-skilled sectors in terms of skill sets, skill intensity and formal educational levels; an ‘ideal’ low- to medium-skilled job-seeker in Slovakia needs to demonstrate a considerable set of skills and qualities. From the skills analysed, non-cognitive skills and specific cognitive skills were demanded more than general cognitive skills or appearance. Experience was the single most requested characteristic. The study shows that online portals that collect information about demand can be a very useful source of data about the content and specificities of demand at the micro-level. Empirical analyses of this type could thus be a valuable source of information for education, training policies and labour market policies.</p> <p>