Overview

The Lightcast Skills Taxonomy is an open-source library of 32,000+ skills gathered from hundreds of millions of online job postings, profiles, and resumes—updated every two weeks. The Taxonomy collects real-time data from over 40,000 sources daily, contributing to a database with over 1 billion job postings and billions of other data points. These data are combined with curated input from other statistical sources, like government agencies, to provide the most complete view possible of the fast-changing labor market.  This information is used in businesses, communities, and education providers who need the granular details and big-picture trends for their planning and improvement efforts.

The taxonomy focuses in three areas: specialized skills, common skills, and software skills. These are broken down into categories and sub-categories. As of March 2025, there are 31 Skill Categories and each category contains multiple sub-categories:

• Administration
• Agriculture, Horticulture, and Landscaping
• Analysis
• Architecture and Construction
• Business
• Customer and Client Support
• Design
• Economics, Policy, and Social Studies
• Education and Training
• Energy and Utilities
• Engineering
• Environment
• Finance
• Health Care
• Hospitality and Food Services
• Human Resources
• Information Technology
• Law, Regulation, and Compliance
• Maintenance, Repair, and Facility Services
• Manufacturing and Production
• Marketing and Public Relations
• Media and Communications
• Performing Arts, Sports, and Recreation
• Personal Care and Services
• Physical and Inherent Abilities
• Property and Real Estate
• Public Safety and National Security
• Sales
• Science and Research
• Social and Human Services
• Transportation, Supply Chain, and Logistics

In higher education institutions, the Skills Taxonomy is used for multiple purposes, for example:

• Marketing to attract post-graduate learners.
• Advising to help learners choose courses based on a career-focus using value information.
• Comprehensive Learning Records as a common language across learner experiences.
• Credit for prior learning to map prior learning to courses.

Lightcast

A pioneer in the collection and big-data analysis of information on the labor market, Lightcast provides detailed information about occupations, skills in demand, and career pathways. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and Moscow, Idaho, Lightcast is active in more than 30 countries and has offices in the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Canada, and India. Lightcast is backed by global private equity leader KKR.

Resources

Skill Categories: lightcast.io/open-skills/categories

Initiative Page: lightcast.io/open-skills