Where does this data come from?

The same live feed powering /most-in-demand-resume-keywords: real postings pulled directly from Adzuna, Remotive, RemoteOK, Arbeitnow, and Jobicy, the same five boards our job matcher searches, scanned once for a curated list of skill and tool terms.

Is this representative of every industry?

No, and it shouldn't be treated that way. These five boards skew toward remote and tech-adjacent roles by nature, so this is a genuine snapshot of what those postings ask for, not a claim about hiring in every field. A retail or healthcare-heavy sample would look different.

Will these numbers still be accurate when I read this?

The exact percentages will have moved, since the underlying page rebuilds from a fresh scan on every visit. What's durable is the pattern this snapshot shows: broad, cross-functional terms consistently outrank narrow tool names. Check the live page for today's numbers.

Should I add every keyword on this list to my resume?

No. This is a directional read on what to check your resume against, not a checklist to stuff every term from. Match what's genuinely true of your background, and check your resume against a specific posting's actual language for anything you're applying to.

Blog

342 Real Job Postings: What They Actually Ask For

October 20, 2026

Most “top resume keywords” lists are written once and left alone for a year. This one isn't a list at all, it's a snapshot: on October 20, 2026, we scanned 342 real, currently-open job postings pulled live from five job boards and counted which skill and tool terms actually showed up. No survey, no opinion, just what employers wrote.

The top 10, by share of postings

Ranked by the percentage of the 342 postings that mentioned each term:

API — 17.5%
Excel — 14.6%
Cloud — 14.0%
Stakeholder management — 8.8%
Leadership — 8.5%
Customer service — 6.7%
Cross-functional collaboration — 6.1%
AWS — 4.4%
Communication skills — 3.5%
Attention to detail — 2.6%

The pattern worth noticing

The top of this list isn't dominated by a specific programming language or a niche certification, it's broad, cross-functional terms: stakeholder management, leadership, cross-functional collaboration, communication skills. Named tools (Excel, Cloud, AWS) sit alongside them, not above them. That matches what the ranking mechanics behind most ATS platforms actually reward: a resume that names specific tools and also demonstrates how you worked with other people to use them scores better than one listing tools alone.

Named technical skills further down the list, Java, Python, React, SQL, Azure, TypeScript, DevOps, each sit in the 1.8-2.6% range individually, which looks small next to “API” at 17.5% until you notice it's because they split a similar-sized pool of technical postings across many different named tools, while “API” and “Cloud” are broad enough to show up regardless of which specific stack a posting names.

A real caveat, not a footnote

These five boards skew toward remote and tech-adjacent roles by nature. This is a genuine snapshot of what those postings ask for, not a claim about every job in every industry, a retail, healthcare, or hospitality-heavy sample would look different. Treat this as a directional read on what to check your own resume against, not a checklist to add every term to.

What to actually do with this

The honest use of a snapshot like this isn't memorizing the list, it's a sanity check: if your resume is missing the broad, cross-functional terms near the top (not just the named tools), that's worth fixing before you fix anything else. For a live version of this data that updates on every visit, see the keyword tracker page. For a check against one specific posting you're actually applying to, not a general sample, the free resume keyword checker compares your resume directly against that job description. And for the mechanics of how keyword matching actually factors into a resume's score, see is my resume ATS friendly.