Since the recruiting environment is constantly evolving as new technologies become available and more widely adopted, we were curious to see what skills or tools are currently being advertised in Recruiter job ads.

What (hard) skills should Recruiters cultivate for their career path?

If you're filling these roles, how hard-to-fill are they likely to be? We analyzed recruiting metrics in WANTED Analytics to find out. 

Most Commonly Required Hard Skills in Recruiter Job Ads

1. Applicant tracking software (ATS)
2. Fully lifecycle recruiting
3. Technical recruiting
4. Oracle HRIS
5. Customer relationship management (CRM)
6. Internet recruiting
7. Oracle PeopleSoft
8. Bilingual
9. Social networking sites
10. Online databases
11. Software development
12. Legal compliance
13. Bilingual Spanish
14. Data mining
15. Executive recruiting

Five of the competencies listed above refer to particular tools, with 2 of them mentioning a specific brand. ATS was the most in-demand recruiting tool and CRM ranked among the top 5. Two of the skills listed above are also among the top commonly advertised skills across all jobs, bilingual and software development. Since these particular skill sets are experiencing high demand throughout the US, some employers require Recruiters to possess this knowledge so they can appropriately determine if the candidate is qualified for the position. Software development isn't necessarily an ability employers want candidates to have, but as one company put it, they want their Recruiters to be able to "speak a little geek to converse smartly about programming languages, web technologies, and software development." It's interesting to note that technical recruiting is also among the top skills listed, as tech continues to be one of the most in-demand areas and hardest-to-fill fields.

On average, Recruiters score a 69 on our Hiring Scale. The Hiring Scale scores jobs and skills based on demand, supply, salary, unemployment, and other factors and assigns a score between 1 and 99, with 99 indicating hardest-to-fill. As you might expect, the hardest skills, tools, or technologies to recruit of those listed above are tech related. Technical recruiting and software development both score a 73 our Hiring Scale. Throughout the US, these abilities remain difficult to recruit. San Francisco presents the most challenging recruiting conditions for Recruiters with either technical recruiting or software development skills. Employers are likely to encounter the least difficulty sourcing Recruiters with technical recruitment knowledge in the Albany (NY) metro area. This location scores a 57, indicating that conditions are likely to be moderately difficult. Software development skills are likely to be the least difficult-to-fill in Atlanta, GA, which currently scores a 65.

       Cities with the Least Difficult Recruiting Conditions for Recruiters with

Since employers are likely to encounter difficulty sourcing this talent, they may want to consider offering training and development for Recruiters without these specific skill sets. Recruiters may want to learn or improve on these skills since they're in-demand and considered hard-to-fill.

Want to find out what your job openings score on our Hiring Scale? Visit WANTED Analytics to learn how.