WorldBank - Soft Skills for Labor Market Outcomes

About the Project

Youth Unemployment, particularly across Africa, is high and rising. There is often a skills mismatch between labor demand and the supply of low educated and low skilled workers that results in high job entry requirements and a perpetuating cycle of poverty among youth who cannot find work.

Research has proven that labor markets are changing and that soft skills – also called “non-cognitive skills” – are increasingly in demand. This suggests that youth lacking equitable educational opportunities can develop soft skills to increase their employability and success in the workforce. In this project, we analyze data from multiple different countries – including South Africa, Bulgaria, Jordan, The UK, and The US – in order to determine which soft skills are globally and locally found to be predictive of labor market success and in which industries.