A methodological inquiry into the data generating process concerning new jobs and skills

In this paper, we put to the test two innovative approaches, which are both based on web data, to examine occupations and skills. Driven by technological change, new tasks, occupations and skills have emerged whereas others have become redundant. At the same time, existing occupations have substantially transformed. These transformations have been studied from the academic and policy perspectives, often on the basis of data collected from interviews, surveys, trade publications, job advertisements and existing occupational or skill classifications. The traditional methods and data sources, however, have been criticised for several reasons. Many have suggested that they are not suitable to identify new occupations and skills because data are usually lagged. This complicates the identification of new occupations and skills, and makes it very difficult to respond to current trends in a timely manner. Web data are an interesting tool to overcome these issues and are, therefore, at the heart of our report, which is methodological in nature. More specifically, we test two ways of identifying new occupations and skills in six case studies. The first method is based on a set of job advertisements published online. Vacancies are detailed and contain information about education, skill and other requirements. Moreover, by considering for which positions job vacancies are published, we can find new occupations. The second method relies on the meta-data and other information available on online job boards. By examining the occupational structure and tags used, one can get insights into upcoming or new occupations and skills. In this report, we show that both methodologies can be used to study occupations and skills and explain what their advantages and limitations are. By piloting easy-to-use and up-to-date methodologies to analyse new occupations and skills in real time, we aspire to provide valuable inputs for policy-makers, education institutes and other stakeholders