Chapter 6: Skills and the nature of the workplace

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Overview and highlights

This chapter explores the relationship between different types of jobs, job tasks, and skills. First, the skill distributions of the workforce in technology- and knowledge-intensive industries are compared to other sectors. Similarly, the skills of workers in knowledge-intensive occupations are compared to those in other types of occupations. Second, the relationships between literacy and numeracy engagement at work and the skills measured by ALL are considered. Third, it is shown that the extent of engagement in literacy and numeracy activities is strongly linked to the types of occupations in which adults are employed. The last section looks at the match and mismatch between the skills of workers and the extent to which they engage in job tasks that require those skills.

The highlights of the chapter are as follows:

High skills industries including knowledge-intensive market service activities; high and medium-high technology manufacturing; and public administration, defense, education and health feature comparatively high proportions of adults at skill Levels 3 and 4/5.

High and medium-high technology compared with low and medium-low technology manufacturing industries have comparatively higher proportions of skilled workers. Thus continued growth in the high technology sector is likely to cause upward pressure on the demand for skills.

Occupations with high requirements for the use of cognitive skills including expert, management, and high-skill information types of jobs tend to feature higher proportions of workers with medium to high levels of the skills measured in ALL.

“Old economy” types of occupations including low-skill services and goods-related types of jobs employ a limited proportion of workers with medium to high literacy and numeracy skills.

There is a significant association between literacy and numeracy related practices at work and the skills measured in ALL. Workers scoring at higher levels of literacy and numeracy skills also engage more frequently in literacy and numeracy related practices at work.

All countries show apparent skills deficits as measured by the difference between observed skills and the extent to which those skills are required at work. That is, workers with low skills who are employed in jobs requiring comparatively high engagement in literacy and numeracy related job tasks. This applies to about 10 to 30 per cent of the workforce depending on the country.

All countries show apparent skills surpluses as measured by the difference between observed skills and the extent to which those skills are required at work. That is, workers with medium to high skills who are employed in jobs requiring comparatively low engagement in literacy and numeracy related job tasks. This is good for growing knowledge economies in the long run, but a lack of skills use in the workplace may be problematic in the short run. This follows from the “use it or lose it” hypothesis.