The feasibility of using big data in anticipating and matching skills needs

In dynamic and rapidly changing labour markets, the identification of skills needs is an important challenge. Imbalances on the labour market, reflected by difficulties faced by businesses in sourcing the skills they need, high incidences of skills mismatch, and significant unemployment or underemployment especially among youth, are common to most countries, independently of their level of economic development. In order to tackle these issues, policy-makers, employers, workers, providers of education and training and students all need timely and accurate information about demand for skills on the labour market and how it relates to skills supply.

This publication collects together the contributions presented during the ILO workshop “Can we use big data for skills anticipation and matching?”, which took place on 19–20 September 2019 at ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and the discussions during the workshop considered the feasibility of using big data in the context of skills anticipation and matching, and both the potential and the limitations of big data in skills analysis.