The market is cautious, but it is not quiet everywhere. Through 2025, businesses took a careful approach to hiring, yet clear demand hotspots opened up for specialist skills in AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). That split matters. General headcount growth has slowed, while demand for people with deep, specific expertise keeps rising.
You can see the same pattern in official figures. The professional, scientific and technical activities sector recorded the largest volume increase in vacancies over the August to October 2025 period, up by 5,000 ONS – Vacancies and jobs in the UK: November 2025. And the sector is large: the updated digital and technology definition now covers 107,082 companies, about 5.2% of all UK companies GOV.UK – Digital and Technologies Sector Economic Statistics. Plenty of employers are competing for the same specialist talent.
The wider picture is what the Low Pay Commission calls a 'low hire, low fire' market: weaker recruitment, only slight rises in redundancies, and vacancies below pre-pandemic levels Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK. In that climate, employers are choosier. They want proof a hire can do the specific job, in the specific sector, from day one.
The clearest shift is at the entry level. UK tech graduate jobs fell by 46% in the past year, with a further 53% drop projected The Register. Broader data tells the same story: UK entry-level job postings have dropped by 30% since ChatGPT launched, leaving graduates facing the toughest market since 2018 techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. The bottom rung of the ladder is thinner.
At the same time, senior and specialist demand holds up. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a nine-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. Employers are concentrating spend on experienced people who bring domain knowledge with them. Most of that hiring happens at home, too: for IT and engineering professionals, the vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force GOV.UK - Professionals in IT and engineering.
Specialist verticals show where the depth premium is sharpest. The UK cyber security workforce is around 143,000 people, with growth accelerating from 2% in 2022 to 5% in 2024 Cyber security skills in the UK labour market 2025 - GOV.UK. Routes into skilled work are also broadening: apprenticeships rose from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. And the long-term signal is strong: demand for key occupations will grow by nearly 25% over the next decade, with 1.8 million new priority jobs expected by 2035 GOV.UK - Landmark report sets out action to address key skills gaps (Skills England).
Start by defining domain depth for the role, not just the tech stack. In vertical software, the person who understands how a hospital ward, a trading desk or a factory floor actually works will ship better product than someone who only knows the framework. Write the brief around the sector problem first, then the engineering skills that solve it.
Test for it properly. Swap generic coding puzzles for a scenario from your sector and ask how they would approach it. Listen for the questions they ask about users, regulation and edge cases. In financial services, for example, recruitment now skews to higher qualification levels rather than junior roles GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report, a reminder that regulated verticals reward people who already speak the language.
Above all, be honest about what you need. Depth in one vertical rarely transfers automatically to another, so match people to the problem, not just the job title. That focus is what turns a cautious market into an opportunity: the employers who define domain depth clearly are the ones filling the roles that matter.
When you know the domain depth you need, the job is finding the person who has it, fast. We search a database of 15 million people, rank a shortlist against your brief in under 30 seconds, and manage the process end to end so you can focus on assessing sector fit rather than sorting CVs. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. If you are hiring for a specialist software team, tell us the problem you are solving and we will surface people who understand it.
