Interpersonal skills and attitude increasingly sought by employers
This month saw a shift in the types of skills employers are seeking. There was a pivot away from skills related to ambition and drive, like hard work and being success-driven, toward more personal characteristics and attitude. Skills like adaptability, positive attitude, and interpersonal skills suggest that hiring managers are prioritising employees who can work in teams, take feedback, and respond well to change, while staying positive and curious.
More job opportunities for job-seekers with vocational certificates
Job openings increased this month for most levels of education, but the gains were not evenly distributed. The good news for this year’s class of university graduates is that bachelor’s degree openings rose 20% in April, though this is 12% below this same time last year. So, the job market for graduates is improving, but still challenging. But roles for candidates with vocational certificates increased nearly 30% this month and are the only group that is higher than 2025, making this an attractive opportunity area for staffing.
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.
