Here’s what the Plum Durable Skills Index tells us, and why leaders in the CXR community should care.
I’ve spent the last decade arguing that “soft skills” are actually the hard edge of human, and ultimately, business performance. Our new Durable Skills Index backs that up with scale: more than 59,000 people across 82 cities, answering 2.5 million assessment items from every experience level across 27 industries. The result is a city-by-city and regional map of enduring human capabilities such as communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and adaptability that outlast tech cycles and org charts.
What’s new and useful for talent leaders
Durable skills are not vibes; they are measurable. The Index draws on the Plum Profile, which quantifies problem-solving ability, behavioral preferences, and work-related social judgment. It then rolls those signals into ten validated Talents derived from 36 competencies. That psychometric foundation matters because it allows you to compare apples to apples across roles, levels, and locations.
How cities “show up”
Every market has a signature. Here are a few snapshots you can use in workforce planning and location strategy:
• New York: Persuasion leads, followed by Embracing Diversity and Conflict Resolution, which makes sense for influence-heavy, multi-stakeholder work.
• Dallas and Houston: Persuasion pairs with Managing Others and Decision Making, strong fits for growth-minded operators.
• San Francisco and Los Angeles: Conflict Resolution and Communication stand out, reflecting collaborative, cross-functional cultures.
• Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa): Conflict Resolution, Persuasion, and Communication are hallmarks of diplomatic, trust-based workplaces.
Regional patterns tell similar stories. New England emphasizes Communication and Persuasion. The Southeast leans into Teamwork and Managing Others. The Mountain West blends Innovation with Teamwork. These are not stereotypes; they are statistically visible strengths that leaders can plan around.
Why “durable” beats “perishable”
Technical skills change quickly. Human capabilities endure. Perishable skills help you do today’s task, while durable skills help you navigate tomorrow’s ambiguity. When automation and market shifts force change, problem solving, decision making, and collaboration are the muscles that transfer across teams and roles.
How CXR leaders can use durable skills insight
1. Location strategy and team design: If you are building a customer influence hub, a New York or Mid-Atlantic footprint with high Persuasion and Communication may accelerate time-to-impact. If you are scaling complex cross-functional work, West Coast and Canadian markets with high Communication and Conflict Resolution can reduce friction costs.
2. Role design and hiring criteria: Start with the role’s durable skill recipe and hire for it. Plum’s model measures problem-solving, behavioral drivers, and social judgment using validated assessment methods that reduce bias and improve accuracy.
3. Internal mobility: Use durable-skill data to match people to projects and promotions where they will flourish, rather than defaulting to tenure or tool familiarity.
4. Manager enablement: Teach leaders to coach to durable strengths, such as how to harness a teammate’s Persuasion without creating unnecessary consensus drag.
5. Messaging: How is your company speaking to people in these cities? Can durable skills data, which is effectively personality data, help your teams create messaging in line with the behaviors of a particular city or region?
View the Index here: www.plum.io/plum-durable-skills-index-2025-north-american-edition
One more thing…
The Index exists to help people make smarter, data-driven career moves and to help employers build smarter, human-centered teams. Every city has its own durable strengths. The opportunity for leaders is to connect those strengths to the work that needs doing, fairly and at scale.
If you want the quick view, the factsheet at the bottom of the Index has the top line stats, largest cities/regions, and methodology you can share with your teams and talent partners.