In a research of millions of job ads, the company Burning Glass asked the question “what are the most sought after skill in the job market?”. They made a list of the top 28 skills that was important in all jobs.

What they found is that the number 1 priority of employers was communication skills. Here is the whole list:

This explains two stats I have found quite interesting in the job market:

1. 56 % of the recruiters are actually rejecting people because their job application has grammar or spelling errors.
2. Finishing introductory language courses in Swedish will increase the likelihood of finding a job in Sweden by 86 %.

So, it seems like communication skills are very important for employers. This is understandable. Communication is an essential part being an employee. It is hard to think about a job where communication wouldn’t be a big part of what we do. Whether that communication is writing emails to our coworkers, our customers, or participating in meetings.

How Can We Improve Our Communication Skills?

One interesting thing about communication is that we can always improve it. It is always possible to rewrite that text to get your point across in a more efficient manner.

Personally, I have found two tools very valuable to help with my writing and communication.

The first one is a software called Grammarly. This software will see spelling and grammatical errors that you are writing. It also gives you explanations and examples on how you can change. I use it all the time. It even checks your updates on Facebook for spelling errors.

The second tool is the book On Writing Well. This is by many considered the bible for writing non-fiction. It goes through some principles for writing and also gives clear examples. One thing that the author argues for is to remove all clutter. This means, only telling the other person what they need to hear or read and remove everything else. Also, the author is arguing that writing should be simple to understand. In any case, if there is an easier word, use it.

I hope you find these resources helpful!

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