Back in 2018, we looked at the importance of soft skills in the job market. Eight years ago, automation in the day-to-day workplace was still in its infancy and there were still plenty of employers who looked at technology and academic skills over other skills, but there was a rise in questions about soft skills. So how does it look today?
Well, soft skills have become even more important with the rise of AI, the shrinking entry level labour market, and a contraction in the economy caused by protectionism in the US and new trade being established. Narrow fields of study are falling by the wayside as it’s getting harder and harder to predict where the job market is going to go and more people are learning transferable, broader skills so that they can move from position to position as things shift.
This can seem very alarming, especially if you’re in the job market looking, but soft skills are still the best way to manage employment and have a better chance at getting a job. So, let’s go over soft skills in 2026.
What Are Soft Skills?
Soft skills can also be known as transferable skills because they are skills that are generally useful in life, no matter what you are doing for work. They can also be known as social skills as they tend to be skills that relate to working with and being around other humans. The most common ones are:
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Communication
- Creativity
- Conflict resolution
- Work ethic
- Leadership
- Teamwork
- Data analysis and pattern recognition
- Adaptability
Now, there is a growing demand for more technical skills such as cybersecurity, AI software, systems thinking and cloud computing, but even these things require these soft skills to be proficient.
Soft skills are still very important today for the same reason they were important in 2018; technical skills can be learned but the social skills cannot easily be taught on the job and you bring them with you as you move through life. However, you can strengthen them through workshops, practice, and reading about how to improve them and that’s always worth doing.
Improving Your Soft Skills
Soft skills are also something that you can improve without spending much (or any) money; in fact, you might already be good at several of them without even realizing it because of how they braid together. For example, if you’re a good problem solver, you’re also creative (because creativity is important for problem solving) and probably decent in communication since you then have to communicate the solution to a problem to others. You can banner experiences from very diverse jobs under soft skills since they follow you from job to job; it’s not as though you’re going to forget out to work well with others if you move from logging to an office job!
Take Stock
It’s always a good idea to take stock of your experiences and update your resume accordingly, but we often forget to take stock of these transferable skills as well and increase your experience in them or change your interview stories about them to something more up to date. Consider the most recent times when you have used your most in demand transferable skills and be ready to talk about them.
So, while things are definitely getting a little weird out there in the world, you can take the opportunity to consider those transferable skills and how you have been strengthening them. They are a great tool on your resume and are unlikely to be replaced by a computer any time soon.
