Interesting Reads This Week

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It’s been quite a week in higher education—and next week will likely be no different. In my reading (and, this week, watching), I’ve focused on some of the broader themes impacting higher education globally. So, what did I come across?

Transformers

Lightcast released a report on the rapid transformation of the U.S. labor market from 2021 to 2024, highlighting the accelerating pace of skill change. Using data from over 2.5 billion job postings, they developed a "Skill Disruption Index" to quantify how much the skills required for various jobs have shifted. On average, one-third of job skills have changed in just three years, and for the top quartile of jobs, 75% of the required skills have shifted during that time.

This represents a dramatic shift, primarily affecting STEM-based professions. Lightcast compared the 2021–2024 Skill Disruption Index with a similar index they developed for the period from 2016 to 2021. In many information-dense professions, the index increased substantially.

While each type of job is evolving in its own way, the changes are largely driven by three broad themes:

• The impact of AI and the growing need for AI-related skills.

• The rising demand for “green skills” tied to clean and renewable energy.

• The increasing need for cybersecurity skills, now embedded across a wide variety of roles.

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