When Does it Pay Off to Learn a New Skill? Revealing the Complementary Benefit of Cross-Skilling

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the economic benefits of cross-skilling using a large dataset of online freelancers, revealing how diverse and in-demand skills can enhance individual wages and employability.

Contribution

It introduces a skill network constructed from freelancer profiles to quantify the marginal effects of learning new skills on wages, highlighting individual-specific benefits.

Findings

Learning in-demand skills boosts wages generally.

Diverse skill sets tend to be profitable.

The benefit of a new skill depends on existing skill bundles.

Abstract

This work examines the economic benefits of learning a new skill from a different domain: cross-skilling. To assess this, a network of skills from the job profiles of 14,790 online freelancers is constructed. Based on this skill network, relationships between 3,480 different skills are revealed and marginal effects of learning a new skill can be calculated via workers' wages. The results indicate that learning in-demand skills, such as popular programming languages, is beneficial in general, and that diverse skill sets tend to be profitable, too. However, the economic benefit of a new skill is individual, as it complements the existing skill bundle of each worker. As technological and social transformation is reshuffling jobs' task profiles at a fast pace, the findings of this study help to clarify skill sets required for designing individual re-skilling pathways. This can help to increase employability and reduce labour market shortages.