Negotiation
Cross-functional skill · O*NET work requirement
Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
In the O*NET occupational database, Negotiation is a skill that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 257 of 894 occupations.
Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this skill as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.
Occupations that rely most on Negotiation
Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the skill the job needs (0–7).
Showing the top 40 of 257 occupations where this is important.
How AI is used by roles that need Negotiation
This skill is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 71.2% of the 257 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (183 roles).
Across those roles, 50.2% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 29.9% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.64 / 5.
| Collaboration pattern | Share | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| task iteration | 28.6% | you and AI go back and forth |
| directive | 28.6% | AI does it; you give the instruction |
| learning | 18.8% | you ask AI to explain or teach |
| validation | 2.8% | you do it; AI checks your work |
| feedback loop | 1.3% | AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback |
Roles behind this signal
The roles where this skill is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.
| Occupation | Importance | Works with AI | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|
| English Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 63.2% | 4.0/5 |
| Editors | 3.0 | 68.2% | 4.0/5 |
| Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors | 3.4 | 70.6% | 4.0/5 |
| Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 66.2% | 3.3/5 |
| Instructional Coordinators | 3.1 | 53.1% | 4.0/5 |
| Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 66.2% | 3.5/5 |
| Communications Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 65.7% | 3.0/5 |
| History Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 65.1% | 3.5/5 |
| Forestry and Conservation Science Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 65.3% | 4.0/5 |
| Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 65.8% | 3.8/5 |
| Adult Basic and Secondary Education and Literacy Teachers and Instructors | 3.0 | 70.9% | 4.0/5 |
| Architecture Teachers, Postsecondary | 3.0 | 65.7% | 3.8/5 |
Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this skill is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.
Industries that concentrate this
Where Negotiation matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Negotiation (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.
Nationally, about 31.1% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Negotiation (measured across 67 industries).
Sectors with the most such workers
| Sector | Workers | Employment reach |
|---|---|---|
| Health Care and Social Assistance | 7,368,960 | 31.9% |
| Educational Services | 6,795,100 | 49.8% |
| Retail Trade | 6,103,440 | 39.1% |
| Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services | 3,992,480 | 37.1% |
| Finance and Insurance | 3,491,550 | 56.1% |
| Manufacturing | 2,422,810 | 19.0% |
| Wholesale Trade | 2,333,980 | 38.7% |
| Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services | 2,141,320 | 23.7% |
| Accommodation and Food Services | 1,971,560 | 13.9% |
| Construction | 1,766,310 | 21.7% |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | 1,364,200 | 48.6% |
| Other Services (except Public Administration) | 1,160,730 | 26.2% |
Industries where it is most concentrated
| Industry | Level | Concentration | Employment reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exterminating and Pest Control Services | National industry | 2.5× | 77.6% |
| Labor Unions and Similar Labor Organizations | National industry | 2.33× | 72.4% |
| Insurance Agencies and Brokerages | National industry | 2.3× | 71.5% |
| Sporting Goods Retailers | National industry | 2.19× | 68.1% |
| Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers | National industry | 1.98× | 61.7% |
| Finance and Insurance | Sector | 1.8× | 56.1% |
| Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) | National industry | 1.72× | 53.6% |
| Educational Services | Sector | 1.6× | 49.8% |
| Television Broadcasting Stations | National industry | 1.57× | 48.7% |
| Management of Companies and Enterprises | Sector | 1.56× | 48.6% |
| Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers | National industry | 1.53× | 47.5% |
| Newspaper Publishers | National industry | 1.51× | 46.9% |
Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.
Related skills, knowledge & abilities
Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.
| Capability | Type | Shared occupations |
|---|---|---|
| Persuasion | Cross-functional skill | 245 |
| Fluency of Ideas | Ability | 227 |
| Instructing | Cross-functional skill | 205 |
| Service Orientation | Cross-functional skill | 227 |
| Originality | Ability | 202 |
| Learning Strategies | Basic skill | 189 |
| Social Perceptiveness | Cross-functional skill | 255 |
| Management of Personnel Resources | Cross-functional skill | 137 |
| Systems Evaluation | Cross-functional skill | 177 |
| Writing | Basic skill | 253 |
| Systems Analysis | Cross-functional skill | 187 |
| Active Learning | Basic skill | 246 |
Sources for this page
Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.
- O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Census NAICS 2022 U.S. Census Bureau
- Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.
Cite this page
Singulariki. "Negotiation." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/skills/negotiation
Singulariki. (2026). Negotiation. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/negotiation
@misc{singulariki-negotiation,
title = {Negotiation},
author = {{Singulariki}},
year = {2026},
note = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
url = {https://singulariki.com/skills/negotiation}
} Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.