Evidence base · 231,145 active postings · 28,870 employers · 350 skills tracked · 2026-07-16
Job Market Insights
Questions people ask about their career, answered by counting what employers actually wrote in their job postings. Every figure is measured, not argued.
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163 markets · 350 skills · 231,145 postings
Find your next marketNew research
Three findings from 244,504 active job postings
What advertised postings reveal about entry-level experience, pay by Seeker level, and the remote-pay mirage. Sample sizes and full methodology shown.
244,504 postings · 3 validated findings · US-scoped pay
Read the researchWhat share of job requirements are actually required?
How Much of a Job Posting Is Actually Required?
Most job postings mix two lists: what the employer requires and what it would like. We split the qualifications in 9,079 active postings that label the two sections clearly. The median posting still lists 11 required items, so the required list alone is substantial. But about 7 in 10 postings also include preferred items, 14.3% of postings that state a years-of-experience figure list it only as preferred, and about 6 in 10 postings that name a certification such as PMP, CPA or CISSP list it only as preferred. The longer the posting, the larger the preferred share. A parsing issue we found after publishing means the preferred shares here are lower bounds; see the correction note below.
Preferred share of items by posting length
11
Median required items per posting
9,079 postings with a recognised required section; mean 13.4
70.8%
Postings with at least one preferred item
Same 9,079 postings; a lower bound (see the correction note)
14.3%
Years of experience listed only as preferred
Of 7,488 postings that place a years figure in a labelled section; junior titles 19.0% (n=163)
59.9%
Certifications listed only as preferred
Of 606 postings naming PMP, CPA, CISSP, ITIL, Six Sigma, CompTIA or an AWS certification
Why are salary ranges in job postings so wide?
Why Are Salary Ranges So Wide?
Himalayas median width by job family
Is staff engineer a step toward engineering manager, according to the job postings?
Staff Engineer Postings and Engineering Manager Postings Ask for Different Jobs
Lower group by posting mentions
Do job postings that ask for a degree really require one?
Only 193 of Google's 7,161 Open Jobs Actually Require a Degree
Hard degree (upper bound) by employer
How many job postings actually tell you the salary?
Only 31.7% of Active Job Postings Disclose Pay
Is this job posting still real, and how fast should I apply?
29% of Every Posting We Have Ever Seen Is Already Dead. 'Active' Is Mostly an Assumption.
Live postings by source
How concentrated is the global job market by country?
Five Countries Hold 76.68% of Every Job Posting We Can Place
Countries clearing it by threshold
Why do some job postings show a salary and others never do?
Salary Disclosure Ranges From 0% to 100% by Source, and Most of the Gap Is Real
Discloses pay by source
What percentage of jobs are actually remote?
We Said 58% of Jobs Were Remote. That Was Wrong.
Remote % by source
Why do some job postings stay open so much longer than others?
How Long a Posting Stays Open Depends on the Platform, Not the Employer
Closed by day 60 by platform
Does a remote job posting actually mean you can work from anywhere?
"Remote" Restricts You to One Country in 95.7% of Postings, and That Barely Changes by Field
Restricted to one country by field
How much does pay vary between employers for the same job title?
The Same Job Title Spans More Than 2x in Pay Across Employers
Median pay by employer
Why is it so hard to find jobs by searching a job title?
Job Titles Have Stopped Being a Shared Vocabulary
Share of engineering corpus by titles searched
We Analyzed 37,577 Financial Analyst Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 46,895 Operations Manager Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 45,478 HR & Recruiting Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 30,388 Data Analyst Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 25,330 Sales Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 22,661 Marketing Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 14,225 Healthcare Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 1,906 Legal Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 8,281 Product Manager Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 2,450 Hardware & Electrical Engineering Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
We Analyzed 1,902 Manufacturing Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
Are there really more senior jobs than junior ones?
A Correction: Our Seniority Pyramid Was Measuring Job Titles, Not Seniority
Classifier senior by field
Should I target specific employers or apply broadly?
A Correction: Amazon Led Eight of Ten Industries Because We Read Amazon
Inside one broad board by industry
How many job postings are actually fresh vs. stale?
A Correction: We Measured Freshness on a Sample of the Two Slowest Feeds
Added in 24h by source
Which cities actually have the most job openings?
We Published a Metro Ranking From a Skewed Sample. The Full Corpus Inverts Both Findings.
Share of corpus by source
How many job postings actually show the salary?
A Correction: The Salary Apple Was Not Showing You, We Were Not Reading
Carrying a pay figure by source
How many employers are actually behind a metro's job postings?
A Correction: We Measured Our Connectors and Called It a Metro
How old is a job posting really when I find it?
Two Clocks Run on Every Job Posting, and They Disagree About What Is New
Rows where the feed moved the date forward by source
If a job title does not say senior or junior, what experience does it actually want?
An Unlabelled Job Title Is Not an Entry-Level Job
Want 5+ years by title contains
Why do some job postings have almost no description?
A Correction: The 120-Character Job Posting Was Our Reading of It
Why do job title searches and job alerts miss so much?
The Most Common Job Title in the Market Covers 0.2% of It
Distinct titles per posting by source
How many years of experience do employers actually ask for?
There Is Almost No Such Thing as a Nine-Year Job
Postings stating years by source
Why does searching for one job title miss so many roles?
1,075 Different Job Titles All Describe 'Software Engineer'
Distinct job titles that mean this by role
If I learn one skill, what else will employers expect?
Employers Who Ask for Kubernetes Ask for Docker 17 Times More Often Than Average.
These postings by if you have
Which career fields are hardest to break into?
Healthcare Asks for the Most Credentials and the Least Experience.
Licence by field
What technology should I learn to get into engineering?
Engineering Isn't One Labor Market. React Is in 9.5% of Engineering Jobs and 76% of Front-End Jobs.
React by specialty
What should I lead my resume with in my industry?
Every Industry Asks You to Prove Something Different. Except One Thing.
License by industry
What should I learn after AWS?
AWS Jobs Ask for Azure More Often Than They Ask for Kubernetes.
Share of AWS postings by also required
What skill should I learn next, given what I already have?
If You Already Know One Skill, the Postings Tell You Which One to Learn Next.
Share by if you have
Can graphic designers become product designers?
Graphic Design and Product Design Look Like One Career. The Data Says They're Two.
Graphic design by skill
Which skills are attached to the highest pay?
The Highest-Paid Skills in 2026, From 73,374 Job Postings That Disclosed Pay
Which engineering skill unlocks the most jobs?
The Engineering Skill That Unlocks the Most Jobs Is Not the One You Think
Median hard skills, pooled by anchor skill (required)
Where can a data analyst go next, and what's missing?
You Are a Data Analyst. Here Is the Shortest Path to Your Next Role.
Do “entry-level” jobs actually take entry-level candidates?
We Analyzed 1,835 “Entry-Level” Job Postings. Most Still Demand Experience.
What separates project manager candidates who get hired?
We Analyzed 2,177 Project Manager Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
What do accounting and bookkeeping postings actually ask for?
We Analyzed 2,310 Accounting & Bookkeeping Job Postings. Here Are the Skills That Set Them Apart.
What do employers want from Python developers besides Python?
Python Developer Skills Employers Actually Want in 2026
How competitive is the backend engineer market?
Backend Engineer Market: What 160,000 Job Listings Tell Us
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Counted from 231,145 active job postings. Snapshot 2026-07-16.