It's interesting the title of the article assumes that critical thinking is a "soft skill". However I don't that's necessarily a great assumption. I think of soft skills as more along the lines of people skills, like communication, integrity, work ethic, etc. If you look at wikipedia article it cites several definitions, none of which include critical thinking or "problem solving". They are all more long the lines of communication skills, cutesy, and work ethics.

There is also no breakdown of which industries were surveyed. It maybe the firms that hire lots of engineers or other professions that require solving new and different problem frequently were not well represented in the survey.

It just seems to me the premise of the article isn't that well thought out.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills