The right skills can put an applicant ahead when looking for a technology job, and employers are also willing to pay more for these qualifications.
A study from JobLeads revealed the most in-demand technology skills that employers want from applicants, by analyzing a database of two years worth of LinkedIn U.S. jobs.
Ansible, an IT automation system, is the most in-demand hard skill in the U.S., with 9,269 current job postings asking for the skill. This IT tool is used for application deployment, configuration management and is often used by DevOps and cloud engineers, system administrators and IT operations specialists.
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Other top skills are Excel and Structured Query Language (SQL). Excel has 8,512 current jobs listing it as a requirement. It is used in a vast variety of roles, from marketing to data analysts. SQL is included in 4,880 job listings and is used to tap into databases to query, insert, update and delete data.
"When applying for a new role it is easy to write a blanket CV and cover letter for your industry, but each role is unique and requires different sets of skills that are utilized differently in the day-to-day," Martin Schmidt, co-founder and managing director at JobLeads, said in a release. "Make sure to tailor CVs and cover letters to properly highlight your skills and show, don't tell."
Read more about the most valuable technology skills for 2025.
Technology skills ranked by number of appearances in job postings
| Rank | Hard skill | Number of job posts |
| 10 | Python | 1,266 |
| 9 | Azure | 1,299 |
| 8 | Cloud | 1,344 |
| 7 | AWS | 1,381 |
| 6 | SAP | 1,384 |
| 5 | Java | 2,110 |
| 4 | Data | 2,921 |
| 3 | SQL | 4,880 |
| 2 | Excel | 8,512 |
| 1 | Ansible | 9,269 |
