15 skills LinkedIn say will help you get hired in 2020 - and where to learn them

It can be difficult to discern which skills companies are prioritizing, and what makes your résumé — but not another — stand out to recruiters. This common gripe among job seekers is why LinkedIn uses its vault of business data to create a job market road map each year.

This year, the company used data from 660+ million professionals in its network and 20+ million job listings to determine the hard and soft skills that are most in-demand (and most likely to get a candidate hired) in 2020.

To define the most in-demand skills, LinkedIn focused on skills that are in high demand relative to their supply. Demand was measured by identifying the skills listed on the LinkedIn profiles of people who are getting hired at the highest rates. Only cities with 100,000+ LinkedIn members were included in LinkedIn's evaluation, according to the company.

Below, we compiled the most in-demand hard and soft skills of 2020, according to LinkedIn. The online courses we listed to help you build these skills — LinkedIn Learning, Udemy, Coursera, and edX — are among the most popular and inexpensive options available today.

Coursera and edX allow you to take classes from the top universities in the world, like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Oxford, and more, for a fraction of the cost. You can audit nearly all of these courses for free, but auditing typically doesn't include graded homework or full access to course materials. You also don't receive a certificate of completion when you audit, which you can add to your résumé, CV, and LinkedIn profile. Enrollment fees for these online courses typically range from $30-$160.

Udemy offers over 100,000 video courses and typically prices them around $13 each. LinkedIn Learning offers over 15,000 courses and comes with a free one-month trial. After the trial period, access is $29.99 a month or $240 a year.

Below are the 15 hard and soft skills that are most likely to get you hired in 2020, according to LinkedIn:

The most in-demand hard skills in 2020

Most of this year's hard skills are in rapidly evolving fields and emphasize the importance of analyzing data. 2020 is the first year blockchain has topped LinkedIn's in-demand skills list, and business analysis (now #6) climbed 10 spots since 2019.

1. Blockchain

2. Cloud and distributed computing

3. Analytical reasoning

4. Artificial Intelligence

5. UX design

6. Business analysis

7. Affiliate marketing

8. Sales

9. Scientific computing

10. Video production

The most in-demand soft skills in 2020

Soft skills are harder to quantify than hard skills. They're typically what interviewers are trying to gauge by asking about your management style or how you've handled career setbacks in the past. Four of the top five soft skills in 2020 are the same as they were in 2019.

1. Creativity

Organizations need people who can creatively approach problems and tasks across all business roles, from software engineering to HR. Focus on honing your ability to bring new ideas to the table in 2020.

2. Persuasion

3. Collaboration

4. Adaptability

5. Emotional Intelligence