The picture is two-speed. Across 2025, a subdued economy pushed businesses towards cautious hiring, yet clear demand hotspots stayed hot for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. So while the broad market softens, the roles that keep systems safe and running are exactly where competition is fiercest.
The wider backdrop is what the government calls a 'low hire, low fire' labour market: weaker recruitment, only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies below pre-pandemic levels the Low Pay Commission Report 2025. Entry-level hiring is taking the hardest hit. Adzuna data shows a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT launched, leaving graduates in the toughest market since 2018 analysis published by techUK. In tech specifically, graduate jobs fell 46% in a year, with a further 53% drop projected figures from the Institute of Student Employers reported by The Register.
Against that cooling, specialist demand keeps climbing. Demand for AI skills rose nearly 200% in a year, with London accounting for 80% of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all UK technology vacancies Accenture data reported by The Register. IT architects, business analysts and systems designers, a group of around 193,000 workers, sit among the occupations in critical demand the Occupations in demand 2025 release on GOV.UK.
Because the cyber talent pool is small and only growing slowly. The UK cyber security workforce numbers roughly 143,000 people, with growth moderating in from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 the Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 report. That is not enough to meet demand. A comparison with the 2024 cyber skills work found that 70% of cyber firms reported at least one hard-to-fill vacancy the AI Labour Market Survey 2025 published on GOV.UK.
Cloud security sits at the crossroads of two of the scarcest skill sets: cyber and AI. That overlap is what makes these roles tough to fill. It also explains why top technology firms can pay sizeable wages for the most skilled people, pulling salaries well above standard thresholds the Migration Advisory Committee's review of professionals in IT and engineering. For most UK firms, the answer is not to outbid on pay alone. It is to define the skills you actually need and widen where you look.
Start with cloud-native security fundamentals: identity and access management, network and workload protection, and secure configuration across major cloud platforms. Then layer in the skills the market is pulling hardest towards. With AI demand up nearly 200% in a year Accenture data reported by The Register, AI literacy is fast becoming part of the cloud security brief: securing AI workloads, spotting model and data risks, and understanding how automated systems change the attack surface.
Look for architecture and design thinking too, given how central IT architects and systems designers are to current demand the Occupations in demand 2025 data. And prize hands-on delivery over credentials alone. A useful signal that the market is broadening its routes in: apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025. The same logic applies to cloud security, where practical experience often beats a long list of certificates.
First, write the role around outcomes, not a wish list. In a scarce market, an overloaded spec narrows your pool for no gain. Focus on the three or four skills that genuinely move the needle and be honest about what you can train on the job.
Second, widen your routes in. With graduate tech hiring down 46% Institute of Student Employers figures reported by The Register, strong early-career people are available and often overlooked. Apprenticeships and career-changers are proven paths into AI and cyber roles the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025. Third, look beyond London. The capital holds 80% of AI-related postings Accenture data reported by The Register, so remote-first hiring opens a far larger pool. Fourth, move quickly. The best cloud security people are rarely on the market for long, so a slow process loses them.
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