The most in demand skill across 367,000 jobs is not Python
We hold 367,000 job listings in our index, and about 25,000 more arrive every week. Every one of them is read for the skills it asks for. That gives a straightforward way to answer a question people usually argue about without data: which skills do employers actually ask for.
We ran the count in September 2026. The answer is not the one the discourse expects.
Which skill appears in the most job listings?
Communication. It is named in 64,288 listings. Python is second at 38,428 and SQL is third at 33,201.
Communication is asked for in nearly twice as many listings as Python.
Here are the 22 most requested skills across the whole index.
- communication, including communication skills: 64,288
- python: 38,428
- sql: 33,201
- problem solving, including the hyphenated spelling: 32,867
- javascript: 26,206
- stakeholder management: 24,668
- git: 24,437
- attention to detail: 22,929
- excel: 19,862
- java: 19,019
- data analysis: 18,374
- ci/cd: 17,970
- react: 16,826
- written communication: 15,653
- organizational skills: 15,504
- customer service: 15,164
- aws: 14,654
- interpersonal skills: 13,725
- verbal communication: 13,536
- negotiation: 13,043
- typescript: 12,414
- leadership: 12,358
How many of the top skills are technical?
Half. Eleven of the twenty two are technical: Python, SQL, JavaScript, Git, Excel, Java, data analysis, CI/CD, React, AWS and TypeScript.
The other eleven are human skills: communication, problem solving, stakeholder management, attention to detail, written communication, organizational skills, customer service, interpersonal skills, verbal communication, negotiation and leadership.
That is worth sitting with. Half of the skills employers name most often are not the ones that appear on a technical roadmap.
Does that mean technical skills matter less?
No, and reading it that way would be a mistake.
Technical skills are specific. A role either needs Python or it does not, so the count for Python is close to the number of roles that genuinely require Python. Human skills are broader, and a wider range of roles can ask for them.
The useful reading is narrower and still strong. Human skills are the most frequently stated requirement in job listings, and they are the requirement people are least likely to have evidence for on a resume. A certificate proves you can write Python. Very little proves you can manage a stakeholder.
How was this counted?
Every listing in the index is read for the skills it names, and the count is of listings rather than mentions.
Near identical labels are merged. Communication includes communication skills, and problem solving includes the hyphenated spelling. Written communication and verbal communication are kept separate, because they are different requirements and most listings that ask for one also ask for the other.
The figures above are the global cut, across every country in the index.
What to do with this if you are job hunting
Read the listing for what it asks for rather than for the job title. If a listing names stakeholder management and attention to detail before it names a language, that is the ranking the hiring manager had in mind.
Then check what you can actually evidence. Most people can name their technical skills and go quiet on the rest, and the rest is what the listing asked for first. A skill gap analysis does that check against a named role rather than in the abstract.
A second reading of this index, published on 14 September 2026, asks what changed rather than where things stand: communication is still the most requested skill, and Python has closed nearly two thirds of the gap.
Where to start this week
Every listing in that count told somebody what it wanted. The only question that matters is whether you match it.
Upload your resume at app.skilldrift.ai. Nothing else works without it.
Then paste the job description of a role you actually want. You get the skills that listing asks for, the ones you already have, and the ones that are missing, named one by one rather than summarised into a score. If it asks for stakeholder management and you have never had to evidence that, it will say so.
Turn the missing ones into a learning roadmap. As you close them your match against that role moves, and so does your match on every job and internship we score out of 100.
Prefer to do it on your phone? SkillDrift is on the App Store and on Google Play.