Our labour market is constantly evolving, and so are the skills, competencies, and experience people need to thrive in it.
One response to this shift is the growing adoption of skills-first practices: hiring and workforce development approaches that prioritise demonstrated skills and competencies over traditional signals such as degrees, credentials, or job titles.
What the Global Trends Tell Us
A skills-first approach in hiring is becoming increasingly adopted by employers to find the right candidates. With this said, jobseekers are also increasingly signalling their skillsets through online platforms in labour markets characterized by high mobility, automation, and a larger emphasis on skills-based hiring.
OECD[1] data shows that counties like the United States are experiencing an increase in skills signalling due to the highly decentralized and dynamic nature of their labour market – shorter job tenures, more frequent career shifts, and less standardized hiring practices.
The OECD illustrates the potential impact of this shift by defining a skills-first talent pool as workers who possess at least half of the top skills required for a target job. Compared to traditional talent pools comprised of workers who previously worked in the given occupation. Globally, a skills-based approach could expand talent pools by more than six times, offering a substantial increase in potential candidates across industries and geographies.
The United States, as an example, exhibited the highest increase in the skills-first talent pool compared to other OECD countries, with a ratio over 16. Within the top five countries, Canada similarly had a ratio of 8.
What We Are Seeing in Our Local Labour Markets
In July 2026, new job postings in Niagara declined by 21.1% to 3,348. Despite the softening in demand, the trend for soft skills persisted. Communication, management, organization, and customer service skills were among the top in-demand.
Data from the Canadian Job Trends Dashboard also reinforces this trend. Within the last 30 days, job postings in Niagara with listed socio-emotional skills increased. Job postings with communication skills listed increased by 1.2%, customer service skills by 2.5%, detail-oriented skills by 4.1%, and operations skills by 5.2%.
Implications For Hiring and Workforce Development
As skills-first approaches gain traction in Canada, there are practical implications for employers, jobseekers, and workforce development organizations:
- Previous experience can still provide an advantage, but it is becoming one signal among many. Employers can widen their talent pools by focusing on the skills required to perform the work successfully.
- For jobseekers, clearly identifying and communicating transferable skills can help demonstrate fit for opportunities beyond a current or previous job title.
- For workforce development organizations, skills-based labour market information can help connect training, career development, and employer needs more directly, supporting pathways into a broader range of occupations.
[1] OECD (2025), Empowering the Workforce in the Context of a Skills-First Approach, OECD Skills Studies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/345b6528-en.