Skill forecasting
Skills forecast for wholesale trade, 2025–35
Equipment Maintenance leads projected skill demand in wholesale trade (+3.2% vs. +2.0% for jobs overall), from O*NET skill importance weighted by BLS 2025–35 projections.
Data compiled 2026-10-09 · BLS 2025–35 · O*NET 31.0 · AEI May 2026
Fastest-growing skill demand
Equipment Maintenance
+3.2% skill-weighted demand, 2025–35, vs. +2.0% for the industry's jobs overall.
O*NET 31.0 Database · BLS National Employment Matrix 2025–35
Baseline
The growth every skill is compared against
- +2.0%
Projected job growth of skill-rated occupations
Occupations with O*NET skill ratings cover 97.0% of the industry's 6.1 million jobs in 2025.
BLS National Employment Matrix 2025–35
Skills gaining demand
Highest projected change in skill-weighted employment
| Skill | Importance (1–5) | Demand change | Vs. baseline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Equipment Maintenance | 1.59 | +3.2% | +1.2 pts |
| Repairing | 1.57 | +3.2% | +1.2 pts |
| Troubleshooting | 1.86 | +3.0% | +1.0 pts |
| Equipment Selection | 1.51 | +2.9% | +0.9 pts |
| Operation and Control | 2.14 | +2.8% | +0.8 pts |
| Quality Control Analysis | 2.12 | +2.8% | +0.8 pts |
Skills growing slowest
Lowest projected change in skill-weighted employment
| Skill | Importance (1–5) | Demand change | Vs. baseline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Orientation | 2.92 | +1.8% | −0.2 pts |
| Negotiation | 2.81 | +1.9% | −0.1 pts |
| Persuasion | 2.88 | +1.9% | −0.1 pts |
| Speaking | 3.50 | +1.9% | −0.1 pts |
Sources & methodology
Every figure on this page comes from the public datasets below. We do not edit the source values; derived figures are explained here.
- Skill importance is the O*NET 31.0 importance rating (1–5) for the 35 essential and transferable skills.
- For each skill, we weight every occupation's importance by its employment in the industry (BLS National Employment Matrix) in 2025 and in 2035. The demand change is the percent change in that skill-weighted employment.
- Skills whose demand grows faster than the baseline — the projected change for all skill-covered occupations in the industry — are concentrated in the industry's faster-growing occupations.
- This reflects changes in occupational mix only; it assumes each occupation's skill profile stays as O*NET rates it today.
- BLS occupations are matched to O*NET-SOC codes with the BLS O*NET-to-NEM crosswalk; where a BLS occupation spans several O*NET occupations, we average their values.
This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. Metaintro has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Vintage: O*NET 31.0, August 2026 release. License: CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-09.
BLS National Employment Matrix 2025–35
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program. 2025–35 National Employment Matrix, industry-occupation employment.
Vintage: 2025 base year, 2035 projection, released August 27, 2026. License: Public domain (U.S. federal government work). Retrieved 2026-10-09.
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