What Does the Job Market Want From Planners? Using Online Job Descriptions to Measure the Demand for Planning Skills Identity

Camille Barchers, Henry Renski and Jamaal Green

Journal of the American Planning Association, 2025, vol. 91, issue 4, 506-522

Abstract: Problem, research strategy, and findingsWe explore what it means to be a planner by examining how employers describe the skills they are looking for in new hires. We developed a framework for measuring the skill content of jobs using online vacancy descriptions posted by the two major planning-focused jobs boards in North America. However, because these sources are national planning-focused organizations and require posting fees, our sample may have overrepresented larger organizations and more senior positions and underrepresented planning-adjacent fields. Based on an analysis of term frequencies and co-citation patterns, we found a small set of skills—organizational and personnel management, research, writing, public speaking, initiative, and leadership—that are nearly ubiquitously desired by employers regardless of specialization. Most of these skills are also common to other white-collar professions, although not necessarily in the same proportion. Planners also tend to draw upon multiple areas of specialized knowledge, with land use, community development, law, and economic development being the most common.Takeaway for practiceWe found that planning is not necessarily defined by a discrete set of specialized skills or knowledge. Rather, it is the unique combination of managerial, analytical, technical, and communicative skills combined with a broad understanding of the social, built, and policy environments that truly makes planning unique. Our results also have implications for planning education. The dominant cross-functional skills (e.g., law, analytical skills, planning process and engagement, communication skills) are well represented in current core curriculum standards. The only major category that may be underrepresented is management skills, which some programs address through studios, internships, or other modes of experience-based learning. Educational programs should also tailor their offerings to the needs of their audience (e.g., entering vs. mid-career or recertification).

Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1080/01944363.2025.2513261

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