The market is splitting into two stories: a squeeze at the entry level and a scramble for specialist skills. UK tech cut graduate jobs by 46 percent in the past year, with a further 53 percent drop projected The Register. Separately, Adzuna has recorded a 30 percent drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT launched, with graduates facing the toughest market since 2018 techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?.
Yet demand for the right skills is climbing. Demand for AI skills rose nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related postings and nearly two-thirds of all UK technology vacancies The Register (Accenture data). The professional, scientific and technical activities sector saw the largest volume increase in vacancies, up 5,000, between August and October 2025 ONS – Vacancies and jobs in the UK: November 2025. The picture: fewer generalist openings, more competition for people who can build with AI.
Specialist skills are driving the market. Businesses took a cautious approach through 2025, but clear demand hotspots emerged for AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, a group of roughly 193,000 workers, sit among the occupations in critical demand, with three of five indicators in critical demand in 2025 Occupations in demand 2025, Explore Education Statistics, GOV.UK.
Cyber remains stubbornly hard to staff, with 70 percent of cyber firms reporting at least one hard-to-fill vacancy AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk.
Start by hiring for AI fluency, not just AI job titles. As demand climbs and entry-level openings shrink, the people who add value are those who can apply AI tools inside real work, whatever their role. Test for it directly in a short practical task rather than trusting a keyword on a CV.
Widen your routes in. With apprenticeships now a fifth of AI hires GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report, and most engineering hires drawn from the resident labour force GOV.UK - Professionals in IT and engineering, you can build capability at home rather than competing only for finished experts. Move quickly on the roles that are genuinely scarce, such as cyber and data, where hard-to-fill vacancies are common AI Labour Market Survey 2025 (Gardiner & Theobald), GOV.UK / publishing.service.gov.uk. And in London, expect stiff competition given the concentration of AI postings there The Register (Accenture data).
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