Changes in skills and skill use in the OECD Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC)

This chapter offers an overview of changes in worker skills and skill use over time, based on findings from the OECD’s Survey of Adult Skills (PIAAC). Since PIAAC has been carried out only once, its results are compared with those from an earlier study, the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS). The comparison shows a decrease in the proportion of the workforce with high literacy proficiency, combined with a broad increase in the use of literacy skills at work. This picture of the change in skills over the past two decades differs from findings from economics that measure skills using wages, rather than direct assessments of skill levels.