What skills do you need in 2016?

Earlier in the year, LinkedIn revealed its ‘hottest’ skills of 2015. It analysed recruitment activity to determine the skills catching employers’ eyes, which provides a good idea of the skill sets that might help you land a new role this year. To learn about these skills, head over to the LinkedIn Blog.

One of the major trends uncovered by this data is data itself — Statistical Analysis and Data Mining not only ranks second globally and first in Australia, but in the top four across all surveyed markets. The report’s by-country analysis also covers Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States.

For Australians, the top 25 is rounded out with skills such as Java Development (11), Algorithm Design (13), Software QA and User Testing (18), Channel Marketing (19), Business Intelligence (21), Public Policy and International Relations (22), and Clinical Research and Trials (24).

The top two spots remained unchanged since the 2014 Australian set was released, while SEO/SEM Marketing moved up two places, Networking and Information Security up five, and Mobile Development up two. Some of the biggest jumps came from HR Benefits and Compensation (up by 10), User Interface Design (up by nine) and Mac, Linux and Unix Systems (up by eight, coming in at 14th place).

Globally, the top skill of 2015 — Cloud and Distributed Computing — entered the ranks for the first time, bumping Statistical Analysis and Data Mining to second place. Marketing and Campaign Management rose nine spots to third place. Other big increases came from Shell Scripting Languages, which also moved up nine spots to sit at 14th place in 2015, and Virtualization, moving up eight spots to enter the top 20, at 17th place.