What skills do employers want most in 2026?

In the WEF's 2025 survey, about seven in ten employers named analytical thinking as a core skill, followed by resilience, flexibility and agility (67%), leadership and social influence (61%) and creative thinking (57%). AI and big data was the fastest-growing skill area for 2025 to 2030.

Do I need AI skills to get hired?

For most office work, increasingly yes, as a tool rather than a specialism. In the 2024 Work Trend Index, 66% of leaders said they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, and 71% would take a less experienced candidate who had them over a more experienced one who didn't. PwC found jobs that ask for AI skills paid a 56% premium over the same job without them in 2024.

Is skills-based hiring real?

On paper, yes. In practice, less than it sounds. Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute looked at large firms that removed degree requirements and found 45% hired no differently afterwards. The change reached fewer than 1 in 700 hires in 2023. Recruiters do search by skill on LinkedIn, so skills on a profile help you get found, but a listed skill alone rarely gets you through.

Why is it so hard to get a first job right now?

Entry-level is where AI is biting first. Stanford researchers found that workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed jobs saw a 13% relative fall in employment since late 2022, while experienced workers in the same jobs held steady. That makes the old route of learning the work in a first job narrower, so some of that learning has to happen before the job.

What does an employer want to see instead of a degree?

Something they can look at: a page that runs, a model with real numbers in it, a sample of writing for the kind of reader they have, a reply from a customer. Hiring research backs this up. Work samples, job knowledge tests and structured interviews are among the better predictors of how someone performs; an unstructured chat is among the worst.

What employers want · 6 min read

What are employers actually looking for now?

Employers rank thinking skills, adaptability and AI fluency first and say they hire on skills. In practice most still screen on credentials, so what gets through is skill you can show.

By OffLadderUpdated 2 November 20267 sources listed at the foot of this page

The short answer

Employers say three things. They want people who can think, adapt and work with other people: analytical thinking is the top skill in the World Economic Forum's 2025 survey of over 1,000 employers, with resilience, leadership and creative thinking close behind. They expect AI in the workflow: two thirds of leaders told Microsoft and LinkedIn they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills. And they say they hire on skills rather than degrees, but a Harvard and Burning Glass study found most firms that dropped degree requirements changed nothing in practice. So the thing that actually gets through a hiring process is a skill you can show, in a piece of work a person can look at.

On this page 6 sections

What employers say they want
AI is now a floor, not a specialism
Skills over degrees: real on paper, weak in practice
Entry-level is where it's hardest
What this means for you
Questions people ask

Career advice tends to repeat whatever employers said in the last survey. This guide takes the surveys seriously but also looks at what firms actually did, because the two differ, and the gap is where your time is best spent.

What employers say they want

Skill	Share of employers naming it
Analytical thinking	about 7 in 10
Resilience, flexibility and agility	67%
Leadership and social influence	61%
Creative thinking	57%
Technological literacy	51%

The skills employers name first, WEF Future of Jobs 2025

Notice what the list is made of: judgement, adaptability and working with people. These are the parts of a job that software doesn't do well, which is why employers are paying for them. AI and big data was the fastest-growing skill area, and curiosity and lifelong learning were expected to keep rising to 2030.

AI is now a floor, not a specialism

In May 2024, Microsoft and LinkedIn surveyed 31,000 people across 31 countries. Two thirds of leaders (66%) said they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, and 71% would rather hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills than a more experienced one without. Only 39% of people using AI at work had been trained by their employer, so most of that fluency is self-taught.

It pays. PwC's 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer, built on close to a billion job ads, found that jobs asking for AI skills carried a 56% wage premium over the same job without them in 2024, up from 25% a year earlier. Indeed's tracker shows US postings mentioning AI ended 2025 about 134% above their February 2020 level while total postings were only 6% above, so the AI language is spreading through posts even while hiring overall is flat.

Skills over degrees: real on paper, weak in practice

Many large employers announced they were dropping degree requirements. Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute checked what happened next across 11,300 roles. The largest group of firms, about 45%, removed the requirement from the posting and then hired exactly as before. A minority, 37%, drove nearly all the real change. Across the economy the shift opened roles for about 97,000 people out of 77 million hires in 2023, fewer than 1 in 700.

Two things follow. Listing skills still matters, because nearly half of recruiters on LinkedIn search by skill and a skills-first search widens the pool several times over. But a listed skill is a claim, and most hiring processes still fall back on the old proxies when all they have is claims. What changes a decision is something a person can look at.

Entry-level is where it's hardest

A Stanford study of payroll data from millions of workers found that people aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed occupations, such as software development and customer service, saw a 13% relative decline in employment after late 2022. Older workers in the same jobs were stable or growing. The declines were concentrated where AI automates the work rather than assisting it. The usual bargain, where a first job teaches you the work, is narrower than it was.

What this means for you

Lead with judgement and adaptability, and show AI as a tool you use inside real tasks, not as a course you took.
Treat every skill on your CV as a claim that needs one piece of evidence a stranger could look at.
If you're early in your career, build some of the first-job learning yourself: small, real pieces of work in the direction you want.
Keep a note of what each piece of work showed, so it's ready when a post asks for it.

On OffLadder, Try turns a direction into one small piece of real work with the tool to open and the text to paste, then keeps what you made as evidence. Your first read is free and needs no account.

Questions people ask

What skills do employers want most in 2026?: In the WEF's 2025 survey, about seven in ten employers named analytical thinking as a core skill, followed by resilience, flexibility and agility (67%), leadership and social influence (61%) and creative thinking (57%). AI and big data was the fastest-growing skill area for 2025 to 2030.
Do I need AI skills to get hired?: For most office work, increasingly yes, as a tool rather than a specialism. In the 2024 Work Trend Index, 66% of leaders said they wouldn't hire someone without AI skills, and 71% would take a less experienced candidate who had them over a more experienced one who didn't. PwC found jobs that ask for AI skills paid a 56% premium over the same job without them in 2024.
Is skills-based hiring real?: On paper, yes. In practice, less than it sounds. Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute looked at large firms that removed degree requirements and found 45% hired no differently afterwards. The change reached fewer than 1 in 700 hires in 2023. Recruiters do search by skill on LinkedIn, so skills on a profile help you get found, but a listed skill alone rarely gets you through.
Why is it so hard to get a first job right now?: Entry-level is where AI is biting first. Stanford researchers found that workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed jobs saw a 13% relative fall in employment since late 2022, while experienced workers in the same jobs held steady. That makes the old route of learning the work in a first job narrower, so some of that learning has to happen before the job.
What does an employer want to see instead of a degree?: Something they can look at: a page that runs, a model with real numbers in it, a sample of writing for the kind of reader they have, a reply from a customer. Hiring research backs this up. Work samples, job knowledge tests and structured interviews are among the better predictors of how someone performs; an unstructured chat is among the worst.

Exercises are practice, not evidence of career fit or a qualification. How to read our guides and report a correction.

Sources

Future of Jobs Report 2025: digest · World Economic Forum
2024 Work Trend Index: AI at work is here. Now comes the hard part · Microsoft and LinkedIn
2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer · PwC
Skills-Based Hiring: The Long Road from Pronouncements to Practice · Harvard Business School and the Burning Glass Institute
Canaries in the Coal Mine? Six Facts about the Recent Employment Effects of Artificial Intelligence · Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research
January 2026 labor market update: jobs mentioning AI are growing amid broader hiring weakness · Indeed Hiring Lab
Skills-based hiring · LinkedIn Economic Graph

How this page is written

Sources support the factual background, not a guarantee that an exercise predicts career fit. Fictional practice material is labelled. Dates record content updates; no independent expert review is implied. More about OffLadder.