‘Soft’ skills desired in young employees

Study finds communication, empathy are key

Looking for a job, kid?

Try a store, a bank, a hospital or an IT company.

Those sectors are the best bets for youth looking for an entrylevel position, according to a study which is being released Monday by Civic Action.

And employers in all those industries are looking for some of the same abilities: most soughtafter are skills such as communication and empathy — not just the latest technical knowledge or courses.

“Some of those ‘soft’ skills are in short supply, but they’re what employers are looking for,” said Sevaun Palvetzian, CEO of Civic Action, a non-partisan civic engagement group.

According to the most recent numbers from Statistics Canada, the unemployment rate of young Canadians is more than double the national average. In November, the national unemployment rate fell to 5.6 per cent (from 5.8 per cent in October). For Canadians between the ages of 15 and 24, the rate was 10.8 per cent (down from 11.0).

There are more than 860,000 youth across Canada who aren’t working, studying or in some form of training, the Civic Action study found. That’s not just a problem for the youth who are directly affected, but for society at large, argued Palvetzian.

And it can be measured in dollars and cents, not just moral outrage.

“There’s a societal cost to having someone remain unemployed,” Palvetzian said. The study estimated that if one of those young people stays unemployed for their entire life, it would cost Canadian society up to $1 million.

“There are health-care costs. There are welfare costs. There can be criminal justice costs,” Palvetzian said.

Civic Action also has an online “road map” for employers looking to beef up their youth hiring and suggests companies “should move to skills-based hiring,” as opposed to “practices that prioritize … credentials and experience.”

The retail industry, long a place for people to take their first step on the employment ladder, is still a solid place to start. According to the Civic Action study — which used research from Burning Glass Technologies and LinkedIn — the retail industry is the biggest source of online postings for entry-level jobs. In 2017, the retail sector in Ontario employed 226,000 youth, according to the study.

The Civic Action study also used online data to come up with the skills employers are looking for. Top of the list? Communication.

While dealing with customers at a shop or bank (or patients in a hospital) are obvious situations where communication is vital, it’s also crucial in Canada’s burgeoning tech sector. The stereotype of a socially awkward IT professional stuck in a back office somewhere no longer holds true — if it ever did.

One big reason strong communication skills are important is they won’t become outdated no matter how much technology changes, Palvetzian said.

“These are things that are the least susceptible to technological disruption,” Palvetzian said.

Next year, the information and communication technology sector will have 182,000 job openings across the country, with more than 40 per cent of those openings in Ontario.