Skilling

LinkedIn reveals 25 hottest skills for 2016

If you are on Cloud or even mining Big Data, you are sorted this year in terms of getting the big moolah

World’s largest professional network, LinkedIn revealed the 25 most-in-demand skills from 2015 that are likely to remain equally important in 2016. LinkedIn in its official blog uncovered these skills by analyzing all of the hiring and recruiting activity that occurred on the platform in 2015. January is not only the time for New Year resolutions, but also the time when a large percentage of LinkedIn members are on the lookout for new opportunities. Indian professionals are most likely to attract employers if their profile showcases one or more of the skills which topped the chart for 2015.

The top three skills for India are

Cloud and Distributed Computing
Statistical Analysis and Data Mining
Storage Systems and Management

Compared to 2014, Electronic and Electrical Engineering has gone up by 14 ranks making it a valuable skill for job seekers. Public Policy and International Relations moved up 4 notches to the 12th rank, making it an important skill category that employers are looking at this year. Social Media Marketing, that ranked 6th in the top 25 skills of 2014, has slipped down by 11 ranks. The data also suggests that PR and Communications slipped two notches from the 4th rank. Interestingly, Statistical Analysis and Data Mining was replaced by Cloud and Distributed Computing as the hottest skill category, but still remains the second-most favourite with employers.

Several trends stood out while reviewing these results:

Hello, Cloud

In many ways, 2015 could be seen as the year cloud and distributed computing graduated from a niche skillset to a more prominent skillset in the global workforce. It was a very hot category in a few countries last year. But there weren’t enough members with skills like Hadoop, HBase, and Hive listed on their profiles to allow us to rank the category on our global list in 2014. In 2015, there was a rapid increase in members worldwide listing these types of skills on their profiles.

Data isn’t going anywhere

LinkedIn's top skill category last year statistical analysis and data mining, is still sitting comfortably at #2. It is the only skill category that is consistently ranked in the top 4 across all of the countries we analyzed. We still live in an increasingly data-driven world, and businesses are still aggressively hiring experts in data storage, retrieval and analysis.

Some skills cooled off (if only a little bit)

A few skill categories dropped out of our 2015 list, due to a reduction in hiring and recruiting activity. Game development dropped from 24th to 29th, digital and online marketing dropped from 16th to 32nd, SAP ERP systems dropped from 21st to 34th, computer graphics and animation dropped from 17th to 37th, and integrated circuit design dropped from 22nd to 41st. The recruiting skill category itself dropped to 26th (from 15th), just barely missing the cutoff. Employers are still looking for these skills – just not as much as last year.