Both developed and developing country employers rank higher-order cognitive skills as the most important skills set. Eastern Europeans also identify the lack of technical skills while developing region employers cite socio-emotional skills.

Our sample only includes one developed country study identifying employer preference of the most important skills. A survey of 3,100 US employers finds that the most important skills sought in new employees are attitude and communications skills, outranking industry-based skill credentials, years of schooling, score on the employer test, and academic performance (Zemsky 1997).

The Eastern European studies in our sample consistently highlight the importance of socioemotional, higher-order cognitive, and technical skills. Romanian employers identify professional knowledge and skills, efficiency and problem solving as the three most important skills for new hires (Balcar 2012). Russian employers note that the most important skills when hiring new workers are technical skills (for non-managers), leadership (for managers), and decision-making, problem-solving, ability to work independently, teamwork, and conscientiousness for all workers (Vasiliev et al. 2013). Polish employers identify, in decreasing order of importance, responsibility, motivation, teamwork, and advanced technical/vocational skills (Arnhold et al. 2011). Macedonian employers ranked vocational skills much lower than their Russian and Romanian counterparts,<sup>28</sup> instead prioritizing responsibility, literacy, communication, and customer care (Rutkowski 2010).

In contrast, four Latin American regional studies find that employers value socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills the most. Beneitone et al. (2007) surveys 1,669 employers in 19 Latin American countries,<sup>29</sup> asking them the most important skills for the job. Using a factor analysis, the 30 skills split into four groups of skills – learning processes, social values, technical skills/internationality, and interpersonal skills. While learning processes (higher-order cognitive skills) – ability to learn, knowledge in the area of specialty, problem-solving, ability to use information, communication – were most important for educators, students, and recent graduates, interpersonal skills were ranked most important for employers. A survey of 1,176 Argentine, Brazilian, and Chilean firms that employ youth asked interviewees which of 23 (predetermined) skills<sup>30</sup> are most important to fill job vacancies (Bassi et al. 2012). More than 50 percent of the sample ranked socio-emotional skills as most important, as compared to 30 percent who felt cognitive skills (termed “general knowledge” in the paper) were most

> 28 Macedonian employers rank basic vocational/job-specific skills as 8th most important, use of IT is ranked 9th and advanced vocational/job-specific skills are ranked 12<sup>th</sup> of 14 skills sets.

> 29 Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

> 30 The 23 skills are classified into five groups: communication, critical thinking, attitude toward work, responsibility and commitment, service to client, and technical.

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