300 occupations are grouped according to their essential skills and then evaluated to assess potential for worker mobility. Skill acquirement, skill upgrade, job switching, and ease of career change are analyzed with respect to changing demand for skilled labour in the Canadian economy. Specific skills investigated include literacy, critical thinking, system analysis, and technology design. It is suggested that certain skills demonstrate high transferability between jobs, implying that one need only focus on a small subset of skills to facilitate job mobility. For example, results indicate that a worker in the “facilitator” group has only to upgrade 4 out of 35 foundational skills to move from a career as a dental assistant to one as a graphic designer.

The report also generates labour market forecasts to identify occupational skill-groups for which demand is expected to increase, as well as those with high susceptibility to automation. Demand for workers with management skills who display strong critical thinking (referred to as “solvers”) and for workers with strong analytic abilities (“providers”) is expected to increase the most. The weakest demand growth, as well as highest susceptibility to automation, is expected for workers who serve or support others (“facilitators”).