The Top 8 Soft Skills That Employers Want

Soft skills are those personality traits and good work practices that enable you to get along with others, be an effective communicator and leader, and succeed at your job. These skills refer to your social and emotional traits and habits — and they are more difficult to train for and assess.

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified several competencies that help prepare students for a successful transition into the world of work. The eight soft skills (or career readiness competencies) included in this article are from the NACE Job Outlook 2026 report.

“We encourage students to highlight these competencies on their resumes, in cover letters, and in interviews as they speak directly to what employers are seeking across virtually every industry and job function,” says Jennifer Katz, director of the Center for Career Advancement at Purdue Global.

Career Readiness Skills and Their Importance to Employers

Communication, teamwork, and critical thinking are among the skills employers value most.

See the table below for different skills and how the surveyed employers view the importance of each skill, with 5.0 being “extremely important.”

Source: NACE Job Outlook 2026 report

Why Are Soft Skills Important?

“Developing strong soft skills is important for career mobility and durability,” Katz says. “While a candidate may get hired due to their technical abilities, it’s often their soft skills that create or limit ongoing growth and success.”

Soft skills are transferable across industries, job functions, and employers. “Whereas technical skill requirements may vary, soft skills are important and applicable no matter the field or position,” Katz says. “This makes them especially helpful for career changers to demonstrate how they can meet prospective employers’ needs even if they are coming from an unrelated field.”

Here’s a research-backed list of the soft skills employers are seeking:

1. Communication

The ability to express thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively is a highly sought-after skill. A good communicator can speak to groups of people with ease, is able to express ideas to others without creating conflict, and can write or edit many different types of communication clearly and effectively.

In the NACE survey, employers identified communication as the most important career readiness skill. The data also shows that this is one of the skills with a significant gap between the level of importance and level of proficiency:

• 55.4% of employers said they found recent graduates to be either “very proficient” or “extremely proficient” with their communication skills.
• But 98.7% ranked “communication” as either “very important” or “extremely important” for college graduates to have to enter their workforce.

“This tells us there is an opportunity for students to stand out by demonstrating proficiency with this particular skill,” Katz says. “Demonstrating great communication skills can help others see you as a valuable member of the organization.”

>>Related Reading: Communication Skills for IT Professionals

2. Teamwork

Good team members collaborate and build strong relationships with coworkers and customers. They’re able to work within a team structure and can negotiate and manage conflict. Employees displaying good teamwork skills are those who cooperate with peers, contribute ideas and suggestions, and are responsible and show respect for differing opinions, customs, and preferences.

Employers look to team players to help build an office culture that’s friendly, which helps retain workers and attracts top talent. Being collaborative with your coworkers also strengthens the quality of your work.

3. Critical Thinking

Being a critical thinker means you possess sound judgment to evaluate and analyze issues, form decisions, and overcome obstacles. Employers value people who can think critically and resolve issues quickly and effectively.

According to McKinsey & Company, demand for higher cognitive skills — such as critical thinking and decision-making — is expected to grow by 19% in the United States and 14% in Europe through 2030.

In a study titled “Critical Thinking: Creating Job-Proof Skills for the Future of Work,” the authors posit that “advances in online technologies will make critical thinking more important than ever before.” Katz says demonstrating this skill to potential employers is important. “It is one thing to say that you are a critical thinker, but another to be able to share an example of a project you worked on in which you demonstrated critical thinking and how that impacted the outcome of the project,” she explains.

>>Read More: How to Improve Critical Thinking in the Workplace

4. Professionalism

Professionalism is not one skill. It is the blending and integration of a variety of skills. People who model professionalism are punctual, work productively with others, manage their workload, and understand the impact of nonverbal communication on their professional image. Professionals behave with integrity, act responsibly, are ethical, and can learn from mistakes.

5. Technology

“On the surface, technical acuity may seem like more of a hard skill than a soft skill, but there are definitely some soft skill elements to this that are important,” Katz says.

The following behaviors demonstrate that someone has achieved technical competence, according to NACE:

• Being open to exploring new technologies/quickly adapting to new ones
• Using technology to boost efficiency and productivity
• Applying appropriate technology for task execution and completion
• Managing technology to incorporate information that supports effective and timely decision-making
• Handling information, ideas, and technology to achieve goals

6. Career and Self-Development

NACE defines this career readiness competency as “proactively develop[ing] oneself and one’s career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one’s organization.”

“Someone who is skilled in career and self-development shows an awareness of their own strengths and areas for development, identifies areas for growth, and develops plans and goals for their career,” Katz says.

7. Leadership

To achieve common goals, leaders harness the strengths of team members. They also use interpersonal skills to coach and develop others, inspiring and helping them to reach their full potential. Displaying leadership skills can increase your visibility within an organization, leading to more opportunities.

Examples of leadership behavior from NACE include:

• Motivating and persuading yourself and others around you
• Using diverse resources and feedback to inform direction
• Applying innovative thinking to go beyond traditional methods and explore additional opportunities
• Being a role model by tackling projects with confidence and a positive attitude
• Inspiring others by being their cheerleader and building mutual trust
• Planning, overseeing, and successfully completing projects

>>Learn More: 5 Key Leadership Traits to Cultivate for Success

8. AI Skills

This skill is new to the list this year, though its inclusion is perhaps not surprising. According to NACE, 35% of entry-level jobs require AI skills, and 16.5% of entry-level job descriptions refer to AI skills.

“Employers aren’t just looking for general technical knowledge any longer,” Katz says. “They want people who know how to choose the right AI tools for the task at hand, write prompts that produce high-quality results, and evaluate what AI produces — analyzing outputs, refining them, and making sure the final work meets a high standard.”

How Can You Build and Improve Your Soft Skills?

“I encourage students to do some additional, tailored research on their target employers to better understand the skills and experiences employers are seeking,” Katz says. “It’s important students do this early on in their educational journey so they have time to work on building the specific skills needed in their desired career or industry.”

Katz also recommends getting involved in projects or opportunities to practice these skills. Feedback can help individuals identify which soft skills to prioritize. Ask peers or current or previous leaders how you are performing in specific skill areas. If you’re in school, seek input from university faculty and staff on where you could improve.

Building soft skills is especially important because employers continue to see gaps between their expectations and employee readiness.

The table below, based on NACE data, compares how important employers consider certain competencies with the level of proficiency they are encountering. For example, 98.7% of employers consider communication an important skill, but only 55.4% of employers believe that college graduates have mastered it.

Source: NACE Job Outlook 2026 report

Let Purdue Global Help You Meet Your Career Goals

While earning a degree remains vital for many career opportunities and advancement, pairing it with a demonstrated competency in these areas gives employers a more complete picture of the value you could bring to their organization.

If a college degree could help you grow in your current career or launch a new one, consider earning one online with Purdue Global. We offer online college degree and certificate programs for busy working adults. Contact us today to learn more.

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