  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.
