Is Your Resume Ready? Here Are the Most In-Demand Skills for 2025

As we head into 2025, it’s important to keep an eye on the most in-demand skills employers are looking for in future employees. The key skills that employers want haven’t changed drastically over the years, but the order of priority does tend to shift every once in a while. The emphasis on hard skills or technical skills is almost automatic as they represent the base level of what employees will be capable of on the job, however, soft skills continue to remain a priority in 2025.

An employee is more than their certificates and degrees, and as a result, the skills on the resume that employers look for tend to reflect the prospective candidate as a whole. As per Aura Intelligence’s workforce analytics, communication, management, and customer service stand at the top of the list of skills that employers are on the hunt for.

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Gaining a Better Understanding of the Most In-Demand Skills in 2025

The skills absolutely necessary for different jobs vary significantly, but some critical skills tend to find a use in any role. While an analytical approach is useful in every industry, for a client-facing job, people skills might take first priority. This does not mean that an employer will solely look for a candidate who can smile under pressure. Every job is highly complex and has multiple components to it, which is why it is important to build a comprehensive resume or profile that accurately reflects one’s abilities.

To get a better idea of the most in-demand skills in 2025, Aura Intelligence conducted a thorough analysis of the job market, scouring through open job posts to establish what employers were looking for. For recruiters, this information will be useful in understanding what competitors are prioritizing, however, for applicants, this data provides a clear picture of what your resume might be lacking.

Soft Skill Come out on Top—Communication Is a Key Skill That Employers Want

The study found that communication skills have been one of the most desirable qualities in candidates, appearing in around 2 million job postings made by employers. While the demand for communication skills did fall in the last quarter, it is still an essential area of focus during the hiring process. This is because employees need to be able to communicate well regardless of their role. From ideating a project to communicating with teammates, employees who can express themselves well are significantly more likely to perform well at their jobs.

Those who can communicate well not only grow as individuals but are also equipped to share that knowledge and help others grow with them. “Soft skills like empathy, adaptability, and clear communication are valued as especially indispensable for today’s hybrid and remote workplaces,” the report explains, and we’ve seen employees with such skills thrive first-hand.

Apart from communication skills, management skills, and customer service abilities also rank high on the list of the best skills for resumes, signaling employers’ preference for employees who can interact and operate well with others. Sales, operations, leadership, planning, problem-solving, and a detail-centric orientation are also important skills needed for many different jobs.

Technical Capabilities Continue to Rank High Under Key Skills

The top 10 fastest-growing tech skills in demand include Microsoft Edge, Express.js, Power BI, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Canva, Generative Artificial Intelligence, Microsoft Visio, Docker, HubSpot CRM, and Kubernetes. There’s a lot we can learn from this data.

AI-based skills are on the rise—this is a hard truth and there is clear evidence of it across industries. Knowledge of AI tools like Kubernetes and Apache Kafka comes in handy for employees in different business areas, and there is an obvious advantage to mastering and showcasing this knowledge. Businesses that are based on providing AI have an obvious demand for experts in the field, but organizations that utilize AI as a support tool are also growing in numbers, pushing the demand for such skills even further.

Knowledge of Microsoft Office or Excel continues to be useful, but expanding on that technical expertise to areas like web browsers and tools like Docker and GitLab can also be beneficial for those who want to participate in the digital transformation of an organization. Data analytics is also a critical consideration for many employers and knowledge and familiarity with tools like Power BI, Microsoft Visio, and Tableau can be useful.

Based on the industry, there is also demand for skills in database and backend development with NoSQL, PostgreSQL, and MongoDB gaining traction, while familiarity with creativity tools like Adobe Creative Suite have their own industry-specific appeal. Employees need to understand their industries and develop a familiarity with the software tools that lead the work in the field. 

Specialized Skills and Niche Capabilities Can Also Help a Resume Stand Out

Technical skills and soft skills can be useful to workers across industries but there are also some high-growth areas where employers are seeking out experienced individuals. The Aura study explained that the healthcare sector has continued to have high demand for top talent in niche areas like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Emergency Medicine, and Clinical Nursing. 

The specialized skills needed for jobs like these show that those who are interested in the medical field can expect to find work that matches their interests.

Customer-centric roles are also growing at a fast pace, with demand for skills like customer success management and sales territory management marking out where businesses want to focus their resources this year. There is also the added consideration of expertise in cross-functional collaboration as a key skill, all thanks to the hybrid work environment that dominates many workplaces today. 

The labor market continues to paint a dynamic picture where candidates who are able to keep up with the progress in their industry have a chance to set themselves apart from competitors. By representing one’s talents correctly and reworking their resume to highlight the skills employers are looking for, candidates may find that the job hunt process is no longer as foreboding.

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