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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).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Arbitrators, Mediators, and Conciliators 4.6 4.9
Purchasing Agents, Except Wholesale, Retail, and Farm Products 4.3 4.1
Chief Executives 4.1 4.8
Labor Relations Specialists 4.1 4.4
Agents and Business Managers of Artists, Performers, and Athletes 4.0 4.0
Education Administrators, Kindergarten through Secondary 4.0 4.0
Lawyers 4.0 4.4
Sales Managers 4.0 4.0
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Technical and Scientific Products 4.0 4.0
Wholesale and Retail Buyers, Except Farm Products 4.0 4.0
Construction Managers 3.9 3.9
Fundraisers 3.9 3.9
Human Resources Managers 3.9 4.0
Lodging Managers 3.9 4.0
Medical and Health Services Managers 3.9 3.5
Purchasing Managers 3.9 4.0
Real Estate Sales Agents 3.9 3.9
Sales Engineers 3.9 4.0
Advertising Sales Agents 3.8 3.9
Child, Family, and School Social Workers 3.8 4.0
Clergy 3.8 3.9
Sales Representatives, Wholesale and Manufacturing, Except Technical and Scientific Products 3.8 3.9
Supply Chain Managers 3.8 3.8
Administrative Services Managers 3.6 3.3
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 3.6 3.9
Coaches and Scouts 3.6 4.0
Education Administrators, Postsecondary 3.6 3.8
Education and Childcare Administrators, Preschool and Daycare 3.6 3.6
Fashion Designers 3.6 3.1
First-Line Supervisors of Non-Retail Sales Workers 3.6 3.8
First-Line Supervisors of Office and Administrative Support Workers 3.6 3.6
Marketing Managers 3.6 3.9
Marriage and Family Therapists 3.6 3.8
Media Programming Directors 3.6 3.3
Postmasters and Mail Superintendents 3.6 3.3
Real Estate Brokers 3.6 4.0
Residential Advisors 3.6 3.0
Transportation, Storage, and Distribution Managers 3.6 3.6
Brownfield Redevelopment Specialists and Site Managers 3.5 3.8
First-Line Supervisors of Correctional Officers 3.5 3.1

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.

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.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

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

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Negotiation. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/skills/negotiation

BibTeX
@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.