High social skills affect income levels: BOK report

[Photo by Yonhap]

Social skills have become increasingly important in the workplace in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), according to a recent report released by the Bank of Korea (BOK).

In the latest report released on Monday, the BOK noted that the share of jobs requiring intensive social skills rose by 7 percentage points to 56 percent from 49 percent from 2008 to 2022.

The share of jobs requiring mathematical or cognitive skills also grew from 50 percent to 55 percent over the same period.

However, the increase was more pronounced for social skill jobs. Social skills include the ability to cooperate with others while empathizing and understanding others‘ feelings.

A more detailed analysis revealed that social skills significantly impact the chance of getting jobs. The share of workers with both social and mathematical skills rose by 4.7 percentage points in 2022 compared to 2008.

[Courtesy of Bank of Korea]

Those with strong social skills but weak mathematical skills saw their chance of getting jobs increase by 2.3 percentage points, and for those with strong mathematical but weak social skills, it increased by only 0.6 percentage point.

The BOK’s report was based on a follow-up survey of a panel of about 10,000 young adults observed from 2007 to 2020.

Participants with higher social skills by one unit earned 4.4 percent more than the average from 2007 to 2015, and from 2016 to 2020, their wages were higher than the average by 5.9 percent.

In contrast, the wage gap between those with and without one unit of mathematical skills decreased from 10.9 percent to 9.3 percent over the same period.