Cognitive demands of the workplace.

The modern workplace runs very largely on the cognitive abilities of the workforce. In this study, we treated cognitive ability as a commodity and considered the demand for and supply of this commodity. Our primary data were ratings of the cognitive skills required by various occupations, as listed in the U.S. Department of Labor’s ONET database. The 21 ratings in that database can be reduced to 3 dimensions, with 1 of them, general cognitive ability, being by far the largest. The demand for this ability was determined by considering the number of jobholders in the various occupations represented in ONET. The demand closely fit a normal distribution, centered at a slightly below average cognitive ability value. This suggests that the ONET ratings represent adequate rather than typical performance. The level of general cognitive ability established by ratings of occupations was linearly related to the performance of applicants for jobs within an occupation, indicating that the rating measure and cognitive test scores are on the same scale. The general cognitive ability ratings of occupations predicted approximately 60% of the variation in income across occupations.