For emerging professions, such as jobs in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or sustainability (green), labour supply does not meet industry demand. In this scenario of labour shortages, our work aims to understand whether employers have started focusing on individual skills rather than on formal qualifications in their recruiting. By analysing a large time series dataset of around one million online job vacancies between 2019 and 2022 from the UK and drawing on diverse literature on technological change and labour market signalling, we provide evidence that employers have started so-called "skill-based hiring" for AI and green roles, as more flexible hiring practices allow them to increase the available talent pool. In our observation period the demand for AI roles grew twice as much as average labour demand. At the same time, the mention of university education for AI roles declined by 23%, while AI roles advertise five times as many skills as job postings on average. Our regression analysis also shows that university degrees no longer show an educational premium for AI roles, while for green positions the educational premium persists. In contrast, AI skills have a wage premium of 16%, similar to having a PhD (17%). Our work recommends making use of alternative skill building formats such as apprenticeships, on-the-job training, MOOCs, vocational education and training, micro-certificates, and online bootcamps to use human capital to its full potential and to tackle talent shortages.

翻译：对于新兴职业，如人工智能或可持续性（绿色）领域的岗位，劳动力供给无法满足行业需求。在劳动力短缺的背景下，本研究旨在探究雇主在招聘时是否已开始关注个人技能而非正式学历。通过分析2019年至2022年间英国约100万在线职位空缺的大规模时间序列数据集，并借鉴技术变革与劳动力市场信号领域的多元文献，我们提供了雇主对AI及绿色岗位已采取所谓"技能导向招聘"的证据——灵活的招聘实践有助于扩大可用人才池。在观测期内，AI岗位需求增长幅度是平均劳动力需求的两倍。与此同时，AI岗位招聘信息中对大学学历的提及率下降23%，而每则AI岗位招聘广告提及的技能数量平均是普通岗位的五倍。我们的回归分析还表明，大学学位在AI岗位中已不再呈现教育溢价，而在绿色岗位中教育溢价仍然存在。相比之下，AI技能带来的工资溢价为16%，与拥有博士学位（17%）相近。我们建议利用替代性技能培养形式（如学徒制、在职培训、慕课、职业教育与培训、微证书及在线训练营）来充分释放人力资本潜力，应对人才短缺问题。