management. All three studies identify a significant skills gap in basic cognitive skills of 10-30 percent across surveys, although these rank far lower than the gap in technical skills.

In contrast, developing country employers identify socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills as most lacking. Manpower disaggregated their global sample by region and find that the global trends are replicated at the regional level in Latin America and in Asia. However, country-specific studies show different trends. Among Argentine, Brazilian, and Chilean employers, a mismatch of 22 percent between the supply and demand of socio-emotional skills was calculated, as compared to 9 percent for general knowledge and 4 percent for technical skills (Bassi et al. 2012). Similarly, IFC (2010) asks Latin American business leaders which skills are most missing in their recruits. Of the seven skills reported in the study, half the sample identifies critical thinking as most lacking, followed by communication (33 percent), life skills (32 percent), and STEM (28 percent). A survey of 1500 employers in five Middle East and North African countries<sup>41</sup> asks human resource managers whether recent vocational school graduates and university graduates possessed the appropriate skills. Soft skills were marginally ranked as more lacking than technical skills, though the results differ by country (IFC 2010). Filipino employers identified that the greatest skills gaps are in time management, initiative, and problem solving, i.e. socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills (diGropello 2010). Polish employers are the outlier, naming advanced technical/vocational skills as most lacking, followed by a range of socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills (Arnhold et al. 2011).

# **4.3  Small v. Large Economies**

Both small and large economies have a preference for socio-emotional and higher-order cognitive skills. Our sample allows us to examine the economies in very small countries – St. Kitts, Tonga, and Solomon Islands – as well as countries with large economies and regions – Sindh Province in Pakistan, Indonesia, Russia, and the United States. A survey by the Tongan Chamber of Commerce and Industry asks 153 employers about the most important characteristics in staff, drawing from a list of 14 skills.<sup>42</sup> The top three responses were honesty (28 percent), punctuality/attendance (16 percent), and hard work/commitment/desire to learn (12 percent) (Figure 3). Basic cognitive and technical skills - computer skills, degree achieved, and literacy/numeracy – all were identified by less than 5 percent of

> 41 Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan

> 42 The skills in the survey, in decreasing order of preference ranking, are: honesty, punctuality, attendance, ability to work in a team, communications, negotiations, customer skills, hard work, commitment, desire to learn, independence, initiative, problem solving skills, foreign language skills, time management, organizational skills, management, leadership skills, computer skills, degree achieved, educational institution attended, literacy, numeracy, theoretical knowledge of job, practical knowledge of job.

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