prevalence across all industries and are thus transversal skills for this segment of the labor market. Some industries such as the IT sector express high demand for particular software skills, thereby signaling specific industry needs with which curricula could be better aligned. Firms are more likely to express education or diploma requirements rather than work experience when searching for potential workers through job ads. On job platforms, employers require on average 2.5 years of work experience and tertiary education, suggesting that platforms are of limited use to labor market entrants. Employers who require several years of work experience are also those who express demand for a higher number of skills. Finally, we establish that job platforms in Kosovo represent a specific segment of the labor market. They mostly require a minimum level of experience and are used almost exclusively for high-skill occupations in Pristina, the capital city and are concentrated on permanent contracts and full-time jobs, whereas low- and medium-skill jobs are more likely to be filled through informal channels.

Information from job platforms has great potential as it provides useful real-time data complementing traditional sources on labor and skill demand across occupations and sectors.<sup>3</sup> Our paper relates to the literature analyzing job descriptions to better understand labor demand. Recently, Hershbein and Kahn (2019) have used job descriptions from US posted vacancies collected by Burning Glass Technologies to identify “upskilling” by looking at changes in firms’ skills requirement in job postings during recession times. Kureková et al. (2016) analyze the text of vacancies in the Slovak Republic to compare the profiles in student-targeted vacancies with other flexible jobs. Similarly, we use job descriptions to shed light on the skills demanded by employers in Kosovo. Muller and Safir (2019) have also documented the skills in demand for Ukraine, using data from one private portal. Our paper adds to this by offering a rigorous methodology on the aggregation of data across four portals. We also use a highly detailed skills taxonomy so that our findings lead to very clear policy recommendations on skills development and have the potential to inform education curricula. With regard to method, our paper closely relates to Deming and Kahn (2018), who apply text analysis to study heterogeneity in employer skill demand using US job platform data. We follow a similar dictionary-based approach to identify

> 3 Available data such as labor force surveys are useful to analyze overall variations in employment across sectors and age groups, but these data have limitations in reliably and timely estimating job creation and the characteristics of jobs currently created. Firm registry data can provide estimates of jobs created in the formal sector but omit an important share of the economy that is informal or dominated by small firms, which is especially important for labor markets such as Kosovo’s. Measuring skills needs quantitatively and at a granular level is challenging. An attempt at measuring skills needs quantitatively is made in some modules of the Skills Towards Employment and Productivity Surveys (“STEP surveys”) directed to employers and implemented in several countries, including in Kosovo in 2015-2016. It identifies the existence of skills constraints across sectors and type of occupations. However, the data on demand for skills are not granular enough for specific feedback for policy makers on skills needs and curricula alignments.

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