Skills Taxonomy

A comprehensive classification of workforce skills and competencies.

Overview

Understanding Our Skills Taxonomy

Lightcast's skills taxonomy provides a structured framework for classifying and analyzing skills across the labor market. Our taxonomy is built from analyzing millions of job postings, resumes, and profiles to identify and categorize the skills that matter most to employers and workers.

Comprehensive Coverage

Our taxonomy includes over 30,000 skills organized into a hierarchical structure, providing both breadth and depth in skills classification.

Real-time Updates

Our taxonomy is continuously updated based on real-time job posting data, ensuring it captures emerging skills and evolving terminology.

Skills Relationships

Our taxonomy maps relationships between skills, identifying complementary skills, skill clusters, and transferability between occupations.

Categories

Skill Categories

Our skills taxonomy organizes skills into four main categories, each with multiple subcategories.

Human Skills

Interpersonal abilities and traits that enable effective interaction with others

Examples:

CommunicationLeadershipTeamworkCritical Thinking

Technical Skills

Specific abilities related to performing specialized tasks

Examples:

ProgrammingData AnalysisAccountingMechanical Engineering

Domain Knowledge

Understanding of specific industries or fields

Examples:

HealthcareFinanceManufacturingEducation

Tools & Technologies

Proficiency with specific software, hardware, or equipment

Examples:

Microsoft ExcelPythonCAD SoftwareCNC Machines

Applications

Skills Taxonomy Use Cases

Our skills taxonomy powers a wide range of applications across education, workforce development, and talent management.

  • Curriculum Development

    Map educational programs to in-demand skills to ensure graduates are job-ready.

  • Skills-Based Hiring

    Focus recruitment on the skills that matter, not just credentials or job titles.

  • Workforce Planning

    Identify emerging skills and plan for future workforce needs.

Ready to explore our skills data?Start with a custom demo.