Top 5 skills employers seek in psychologists

• Between 2015 and 2017, the most in-demand skill categories listed in job advertisements posted to the PsycCareers website were “leadership” (19 percent of ads) and “cultural awareness” (18 percent of ads).^1,2,3 “Teamwork” (16 percent), “communication” (14 percent) and “analytical” (8 percent) skills rounded out the top five most-requested skill categories.
• Broken down by job type, analytical skills were the most frequently specified for faculty researcher positions, with 35 percent of job postings requesting them, while communication skills were the most frequently requested for applied psychologist positions (33 percent). In ads for faculty positions, cultural awareness skills were the most frequently specified (28 percent) and leadership skills were the most requested for health service psychologist positions (20 percent).⁴

By For more information, see CWS’s interactive data tools at www.apa.org/workforce/data-tools or contact cws@apa.org.

¹ APA. (2018). 2015–17 Psychology Job Advertisements: An Overview. Retrieved from www.apa.org/workforce/publications/job-market/2017-jobs-report.pdfopens in new window .

² The text of these advertisements was analyzed to identify and categorize the skills specified as required or desired. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the jobdescription text was used to identify related words and phrases, which were then combined into distinct skills categories. The analysis resulted in nine categories: leadership, cultural awareness, teamwork, communication, analytical skills, computer skills, language, organizational skills and critical-thinking skills. One job ad could specify multiple skills. For more information on methods, refer to the Technical Documentation, www.apa.org/workforce/publications/job-market/2017-technical-documentation.pdfopens in new window .

³ Approximately 51 percent of all job ads did not specify any skills.

⁴ Faculty included administrative roles such as dean, chair, etc., as well as both tenure and tenure-track positions. Applied psychologist includes positions in forensic, industrial-organizational, human factors and engineering psychology. Health service psychologist positions represent any position that primarily provides clinical service. Each ad could only be classified as one job type.