AI Ethics and Governance in the Job Market: Trends, Skills, and Sectoral Demand

Demand for an AI-literate workforce has surged, in large part to counter a growing skills gap. Meanwhile, expertise in ethical and governance dimensions of AI is increasingly deemed crucial to handle various organizational, regulatory, and social concerns. However, the focus of AI literacy efforts to date has been primarily technical. This paper helps close this gap by providing the first large-scale analysis of AI ethics and governance skills sought by employers in the labor market. Drawing on more than four million job postings for AI-related professions over the years 2018-2023, we provide an empirically-grounded characterization of AI ethics and governance competencies and perform associated descriptive analyses. We find that professionals with AI ethics and governance competencies are requested by employers to hold diverse skill sets, covering technical, managerial, and regulatory domains, though the two professions remain distinct. Moreover, the demand for expertise in these domains has grown rapidly, both in absolute terms and as a proportion of AI-related job postings. More than 100,000 professionals with expertise in AI ethics and governance are now requested annually, with the concentration highest in the financial and information sectors. These findings can help individuals, employers, and institutions of higher education better design job requirements, educational programs, and individual learning pathways, closing the career competency gap in AI ethics and governance.