(TNND) — LinkedIn published its 2026 “Skills on the Rise” report as job seekers navigate a tight jobs market that is increasingly focused on hiring people based on capabilities over experience.

Nearly half of recruiters searching on LinkedIn explicitly use skills data to help fill their roles.

“They’re no longer looking for just titles,” said Andrew Seaman, the editor at large for jobs and career development at LinkedIn News.

Hiring last month beat expectations, but last year saw the lowest job creation since the pandemic. And LinkedIn said job seekers can lean into high-demand skills to stand out from the competition.

LinkedIn, the largest professional network in the world, said its data shows companies are prioritizing adaptable skills over linear resumes or traditional degrees.

The skills on this year’s list span the spectrum from the technical to the human.

Last year’s version of LinkedIn’s “Skills on the Rise” featured a single list of the 15 fastest-growing skills in the U.S.

This year, Seaman said they opted to put the skills into buckets specific to functional job areas.

LinkedIn then included separate industry-specific top skills lists, from sales and finance to education and health care.

LinkedIn also included links to related learning courses so members can upskill for free for a limited time.

Seaman said artificial intelligence is dominating the conversation around workplace skills.

Some companies are moving beyond basic AI implementation and searching for workers with more technical AI skills.

But Seaman said there’s a wide swath of jobs requiring more elementary AI skills.

“I think the best way to sort of operationalize this for a person is to say, ‘OK, I’m willing to experiment. I can go a little bit deeper, but more importantly, I know how to apply this in the work that I am doing or want to be doing,’” Seaman said.

On the flip side, Seaman said companies still see the limitations in AI and are searching for skills that are innately human, such as cross-team collaboration, client relations, leadership training and more.

“There’s still nuance that AI can’t do,” he said.

Seaman said companies are also looking for people with strong business fundamentals, folks who can develop new revenue streams and new efficiencies.

The upside for companies of a skills-based candidate search is that it expands their applicant pool, Seaman said.

The upside for job seekers is that it, likewise, opens up opportunities that might not have been considered otherwise.

Seaman said job seekers should start with a skills inventory and then focus on those attributes on resumes and profile pages. The “Skills on the Rise” report can help job seekers identify gaps in their skills so they can improve in the areas wanted by recruiters.

He said recruiters are not just looking for people who can do a job, but for those who can do the job well. To that end, he advised job seekers to drill down on how their skills knowledge can or has benefited employers.

Explore the “Skills on the Rise” across 12 job functions: sales, business development, engineering, education, health care, information technology, arts and design, finance, media and communications, human resources, program and project management, and marketing.

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