Are Soft Skills Necessary? Assessing the Importance of Interactional-Soft-Skills Occupations to the Employment of Less-Educated,Young,Black Males

Abstract

Some scholars argue that the low employment rate for young Black males with less than a college degree is due, in part, to their lack of soft skills. This claim has been difficult to assess because soft skills are defined in multiple ways, and soft skills are difficult to measure. I evaluate this claim by focusing specifically on interactional soft skills (ISS). I address the measurement problem indirectly by using the occupational-task lists in the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to rate occupations by their need for ISS. I calculate Interactional-Soft-Skill Scores for the 399 occupational categories in which less-educated young men are employed. My analysis shows that, contrary to the claims by several scholars, less-educated, young, Black males are nearly as likely to be employed in interactional-soft-skills occupations as their White peers. The low employment rate of less-educated, young Black males is mainly due to their failure to obtain hard-skills work—not soft-skills work. There appears to be false and misleading stereotypes behind the argument that less-educated, young, Black males lack soft skills.