Self-confidence and hard work are the fastest-growing skills appearing in UK job openings
Self-confidence and hard work are the soft skills employers are increasingly seeking in today’s workers. This is the second month in a row that self-confidence has topped the list. Overall, the top skills are highly relational and highlight a trend toward initiative and a growth mindset. In an uncertain environment and challenging times, it is clear that employers are looking to create teams that are intrinsically-motivated and will help maintain a positive work environment.
Opportunities for those with professional certifications and advanced degrees are declining
With job openings falling across the U.K. this month, roles for all levels of education were impacted. But the effect wasn’t necessarily equal. Roles for applicants with professional certifications, master’s degrees, and Post-graduate education were all down more than 40% compared to February of 2025. Whereas job openings requiring a vocational certificate or GCSE were comparatively resilient.
Methodology
Market IQ collects job postings daily from over 5 million websites across the U.K. Our system automatically identifies, extracts, and structures job data into 100+ attributes using Textkernel’s AI powered parsing technology. Each posting is normalised against professional taxonomies, enriched with company information, and deduplicated using sophisticated algorithms to identify unique job opportunities. The system maintains high levels of accuracy through automated quality controls and continuous improvement processes, making it a trusted source for U.K. labour market insights.
Skills
Market IQ utilizes Textkernel’s proprietary Skills Normalisation Taxonomy (SNT) to extract and normalise skills from job postings. Our taxonomy encompasses 13,200+ unique skill concepts mapped through 250,000+ terms, covering professional skills, IT skills, soft skills, and languages. Using advanced machine learning, the system identifies skills in context, disambiguates ambiguous terms, and normalises them to standardised concepts—enabling accurate cross-market analysis regardless of how employers phrase skill requirements. The taxonomy is continuously updated quarterly based on millions of job postings, market feedback, and labour market trends. This data-driven approach ensures Market IQ captures both established and emerging skills as they appear in the U.K. job market, providing unparalleled insights into skill demand across industries and regions. All analysis of skills excludes any skills that appear in fewer than 10,000 job descriptions.
