Communication is not the top attribute employers want to see on resumes from college students

Back on December 14, 2010 I had blogged about how Half of employers surveyed think recent college grads lack communication skills. That post discussed the annual Job Outlook Surveys done by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). I mentioned that:

“When I looked further I found that communications skills has topped the list for the past decade.”  

Another post on March 4, 2017 is titled According to the 2016 NACE Job Outlook Survey, verbal communication is the most important candidate skill and employers grade their average new grad/recruit as a B+ on it. But in the past decade the rank had been changing. Also, newer surveys (after 2016) instead reported just the combination of written and verbal communication being ranked third or fourth as is shown above.

Full versions of those surveys theoretically are only available to NACE members, but some members post them and you can easily find the 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 , and 2020 surveys, An article about the 2020 survey described The Top Attributes Employers Want to See on Resumes, as shown above in another in a second bar chart where verbal communication skill was ranked fifth (by 69.6% of employers). Instead problem solving skills are at the top, followed by teamwork and a strong work ethic.      

As shown above in a third bar chart, from 2012 to 2020 written communication skill was always ranked higher than verbal communication skill (which was ranked seventh five times, from a high of fourth in 2016 to a low of eighth in 2015).