Labor Market Intelligence: 12-Month Job Posting Analysis (June 2025–June 2026)

Between June 2025 and June 2026, U.S. employers posted 33,426,935 active online job listings across 990 occupations, 962,147 companies, and every major metropolitan area in the country (Chmura Economics & Analytics, 2026). More than half of those postings — 18,370,587 — left education requirements unspecified. Of the postings that did specify, employers asked for a high school diploma or equivalent at nearly the same frequency as a bachelor's degree, 6,725,692 versus 6,034,652. Together, these figures confirm what workforce researchers have been tracking for several years: skills-based hiring is no longer an employer experiment at the margins of the labor market. It is now the operational default for the majority of U.S. job postings.

This report analyzes that dataset to identify the occupations generating the most hiring activity, the metropolitan markets carrying the heaviest demand, the hard and soft skills employers are specifying at scale, the credential requirements shaping access to employment, and the policy implications for workforce boards, training institutions, and state economic development agencies.

Top Occupations by Active Posting Volume

Registered Nurses generated the largest single-occupation posting volume over the 12-month window at 2,049,199 active postings, nearly double the next-highest occupation. The concentration of healthcare occupations across the top ten reflects a structural dynamic that has been building across the post-pandemic period: an aging population, expanding care models, and persistent workforce shortages across clinical and managerial roles are together producing a sustained, multi-year demand signal that training institutions have not yet met at scale.

The full top-ten ranking by active posting volume: Registered Nurses (2,049,199); Retail Salespersons (1,024,630); Medical and Health Services Managers (933,923); First-Line Supervisors of Retail Sales Workers (878,223); Social and Human Service Assistants (631,742); Stockers and Order Fillers (596,393); Sales Representatives of Services (575,921); Securities, Commodities, and Financial Services Sales Agents (575,581); Computer and Information Systems Managers (564,096); and Maintenance and Repair Workers (534,224).

Two structural observations emerge. First, healthcare occupations — spanning clinical roles (Registered Nurses, Social and Human Service Assistants) and managerial roles (Medical and Health Services Managers) — dominate volume in a way no other sector approaches. Second, the presence of Computer and Information Systems Managers and Financial Services Sales Agents alongside high-volume retail and service roles confirms genuine occupational breadth, not concentration in a single sector.

Top Hiring Metropolitan Markets

New York leads U.S. metropolitan markets in active posting volume at 420,067, followed by Chicago (245,759), Houston (238,804), and Atlanta (228,510). Dallas ranks fifth (195,430), followed by San Francisco (191,229), Boston (184,175), Austin (181,828), Los Angeles (181,687), and Washington, D.C. (174,193).

Atlanta's ranking at fourth nationally is significant for Georgia-focused workforce policy. A metropolitan area generating 228,510 active postings in a 12-month window places Georgia's largest city in the same tier as Chicago and Houston — substantially larger and more economically diverse markets. Georgia's workforce board infrastructure, Technical College System programming, and adult education capacity should be calibrated to top-tier national hiring intensity, not to a regional or mid-market benchmark.

The presence of Austin and Boston in the top ten, both smaller in total population than several markets that rank lower, reflects the concentration of technology and life sciences employment in those metros. The Texas cluster — Houston, Dallas, and Austin — generates significant aggregate demand that reflects the state's broad economic diversification and continued population and employment growth.

Top Industries and Employers by Posting Volume

Administrative and Support Services generated the highest industry-level posting volume at 2,639,874 postings, followed by Retail Trade (2,391,657) and Health Care and Social Assistance (1,822,132). Accommodation and Food Services produced 1,068,861 postings, Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 799,847, Educational Services 791,056, Manufacturing 764,343, and Finance and Insurance 642,083.

The dominance of Administrative and Support Services at the top of the industry distribution is a structural artifact: it encompasses staffing agencies, business process outsourcing providers, and support service companies whose business model involves continuous high-volume recruitment. The presence of staffing firms — Allied Universal, Express Employment Professionals, Actalent, and Cynet Health — among the top ten employers, alongside Walmart, CVS, and Starbucks, confirms that a substantial share of national posting activity flows through intermediary employers rather than direct-hire companies.

Walmart generated the highest individual employer posting volume at 181,360 postings, followed by Allied Universal at 180,677, CVS at 137,796, and Express Employment Professionals at 135,175.

Most-In-Demand Hard Skills

Microsoft Office appeared in 3,020,000 postings, making it the single most frequently specified hard skill across the 12-month dataset, followed by Microsoft Excel at 2,950,000. Physical lifting capacity was specified in a combined 3,150,000 postings — the 41-to-50-pound range in 1,750,000 postings and the 51-to-100-pound range in 1,400,000 — reflecting the substantial share of national job postings in logistics, warehousing, retail, and healthcare aide roles that carry physical demands.

Microsoft Outlook appeared in 1,240,000 postings, Microsoft PowerPoint in 1,050,000, Sales in 960,000, Microsoft Word in 891,000, Retail Sales in 872,000, customer relationship management software in 868,000, and Manufacturing skills in 858,000. The persistent appearance of the Microsoft Office suite across more than three million postings reinforces a finding that workforce developers encounter consistently: digital productivity tools function as a baseline employment credential across occupational categories, not as a specialized technical skill.

Community college programs, adult education providers, and workforce boards that do not treat Office proficiency as a core competency for all program completers are producing graduates who will encounter a preventable barrier at the point of initial employment screening.

Most-In-Demand Soft Skills

Written and verbal communication skills appeared in 18,200,000 postings, representing the most frequently requested competency in the entire dataset and appearing in more than half of all active postings. Team collaboration followed at 13,200,000 postings, customer service at 6,600,000, organization at 5,800,000, adaptability at 5,300,000, detail orientation at 5,200,000, problem solving at 4,800,000, fast-paced execution at 4,200,000, self-direction at 4,000,000, and interpersonal relationship skills at 3,700,000.

The scale of soft skill demand — particularly communication appearing in more than half of all postings — has direct implications for curriculum design. Competency-based education frameworks that treat communication, collaboration, and adaptability as measurable, assessable outcomes, rather than assumed graduate attributes, are better aligned with what employers are actually specifying at scale.

Certifications Most Frequently Requested

Basic Life Support certification appeared in 1,500,000 postings, reflecting the breadth of healthcare and emergency response roles in the national posting pool. A driver's license was specified in 1,130,000 postings, Registered Nurse licensure in 1,130,000, CPR certification in 798,000, Advanced Cardiac Life Support in 559,000, First Aid certification in 262,000, commercial driver's license in 236,000, Secret Security Clearance in 233,000, Licensed Practical Nurse licensure in 216,000, Certified Nursing Assistant certification in 201,000, and Pediatric Advanced Life Support in 200,000.

The healthcare credential cluster — combining BLS, RN licensure, CPR, ACLS, LPN, CNA, and PALS — collectively appears in more than 4,400,000 postings. This concentration makes healthcare credentialing the single largest structured training demand in the national labor market, and it directly informs the priorities for community college, workforce board, and adult education program investment.

Education Requirements: Skills-Based Hiring as the Dominant Pattern

Of the 33,426,935 active postings in the 12-month dataset, 18,370,587 — 55% of total volume — left education requirements unspecified. High school diploma or equivalent was specified in 6,725,692 postings, bachelor's degree in 6,034,652, associate's degree in 1,166,101, master's degree in 785,091, and doctoral or professional degree in 344,812.

Expressed as shares of total postings, a bachelor's degree is required in 18% of postings, a master's degree in 3.5%, and a doctoral or professional degree in approximately 1%. The overwhelming majority of U.S. employers, when posting positions publicly, either specify that a high school credential is sufficient or make no educational requirement specification at all.

This does not mean that education credentials are irrelevant to labor market outcomes. Higher educational attainment continues to correlate with higher wages, lower unemployment, and greater occupational mobility in longitudinal research. What it does mean is that the mechanism by which employers screen candidates at the point of initial application is shifting away from diploma proxies toward competency demonstration, skills verification, and work history — a shift with policy consequences for how public workforce investment is structured.

Implications for Georgia Workforce Policy

Georgia's workforce infrastructure must be calibrated to top-tier national hiring intensity. Atlanta's 228,510 active postings rank fourth nationally, placing Georgia in competition with Chicago and Houston for talent supply. Workforce board capacity, training seat availability, and job placement infrastructure should reflect that intensity level.

Digital productivity is the new baseline credential. Microsoft Office appears in more than three million postings — more than any professional certification and more than any single occupational skill category. Every workforce program, adult education course, and community college credential track should treat Office proficiency as a completers' competency, not an elective supplement.

Healthcare credentials represent the single largest structured training demand. The combined posting volume for healthcare-specific credentials across BLS, RN, CPR, ACLS, LPN, CNA, and PALS exceeds 4.4 million — a figure that dwarfs any comparable credential cluster in any other sector. Healthcare training pipeline investment is the dominant workforce policy priority by any volume-based measure.

Soft skills require explicit assessment and curriculum integration. Written and verbal communication appear in more than 18 million postings — more than any other competency in the dataset. Programs that embed communication and collaboration competencies in curriculum design and assess them through applied performance tasks are better aligned with what employers are specifying at scale.

Skills-based hiring is now the structural default. With 55% of postings leaving education requirements unspecified and only 18% requiring a bachelor's degree, the policy case for accelerating investment in apprenticeships, stackable credentials, and skills verification systems is supported by the data at national scale.

References

• Chmura Economics & Analytics. (2026). JobsEQ® real-time intelligence: 12-month job posting analysis, June 2025–June 2026 [Real-time labor market database]. https://www.chmura.com/jobseq