Employers have been trying to “upskill” workers to compete in an automated, artificial intelligence world.
But a new paper warns bosses and workers not to forget general—and potentially even more important—fundamentals that serve as a foundation for ongoing learning. Sometimes called “soft skills,” colleagues’ ability to communicate, interact, and think critically underpins how people acquire more advanced professional skills.
Employers need to do a better job identifying and enhancing those foundations to remain competitive, say Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Letian Zhang and coauthors in their new paper, "Skill Dependencies Uncover Nested Human Capital.” The research, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, offers a roadmap for companies and policymakers to understand how skills build by “nesting” and reward skilled employees with higher wages.
“The labor market is changing really fast and understanding the skill landscape and the progression of skills is so important today,” says Zhang. “Highly specific, advanced technical skills are obviously important, but fundamental skills are actually really important too, if not more important.”
As artificial intelligence transforms entire industries and labor markets, the report reminds businesses rushing to keep pace not to lose sight of the basics. The research also helps explain barriers to career mobility and offers insights for reducing them.
Zhang collaborated with Moh Hosseinioun, a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management; Frank Neffke, a scholar at the Complexity Science Hub Vienna, a research organization; and Hyejin Youn, an associate professor at Seoul National University.
‘Nested structures’
“Nesting,” a term originally associated with ecological scholarship and now widely used in other academic fields, describes structures with interdependent parts that accumulate and spread over time.
Think of a small sapling growing into a mighty tree with a tall, thick trunk and branches sprouting from its sides— and branches sprouting from branches, explains Zhang.
In the case of professional development, general skills are at the base of the trunk and more specialized skills branch out from the trunk. Combined, they make a “nested structure,” one component leading to another with new components depending on each other.
“Just as mastering calculus requires a prior understanding of algebra and geometry, education and career paths are both cumulative and sequential, with each step building upon the previous one,” the authors write.
Sequences of skills
Based on an analysis of 70 million job transactions in 20 million resumes and skill-level rankings from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources, the authors show that there are indeed set sequences—or nested structures—of how people learn and gain skills over years.
Specific skills build upon broader, fundamental ones—as shown in millions of job descriptions that list different requirements—for a broad number of professions. They include computer programming, mathematics, biology, and medicine.
Inside the Research
The researchers sized up the requirements for almost 1,000 occupations, ranking a skill’s importance and the required proficiency. For example, speaking is important for lawyers and paralegals, but lawyers who argue in court need to be more adept speakers. The skills fell into these categories:
- 31General skills, such as oral expression and the ability to speak English
- 43Intermediate skills, like mathematics and the ability to negotiate
- 46Specific skills, including dynamic flexibility and programming
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Skill Dependencies Uncover Nested Human Capital
Hosseinioun, Moh, Frank Neffke, Letian Zhang, and Hyejin Youn. "Skill Dependencies Uncover Nested Human Capital." Nature Human Behaviour 9, no. 4 (April 2025): 673–687.
