Changes in occupational skills - A case study using non-negative matrix factorization

Abstract

Changes in the skill requirements of occupations can alter the balance in the numbers of high, middle and low-skilled jobs on the market. This can result in structural unemployment, stagnating income and other unforeseen social and economic side effects. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of a recent matrix factorization technique for extracting the underlying skill categories from O*NET, a publicly available database on occupational skill requirements. This study builds upon earlier work which also focused on this database, and which indicated that changes in skill requirements were in response to increased automation which unevenly affected different segments of the job market. In this paper we refine the methodological underpinnings of the earlier work and report some preliminary results which already show great promise.