Personal traits rise in importance to employers
July’s job openings suggest that employers are increasingly focusing on character traits like trustworthiness and friendliness and. Attitude also shows up in the top ten list. This is a shift from last month when openings were more likely to mention communication, networking, and problem solving. However, self-motivation and attention to detail remain consistently in the top ten, reflecting employers’ desire for team-members who can work independently and diligently.
Cleaning and maintenance continue to offer good job prospects
Compensation for job openings in the cleaning and maintenance field continues to grow month over month, offering a good financial opportunity for staffing agencies. Interestingly, this month also saw a jump in salary for communication jobs, which has not been the case for quite some time, perhaps signaling a more balanced approach to AI usage with humans in the loop for marketing and communications functions.
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.
