The picture at the junior end is stark. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. That gap matters because it means the door is closing fastest on the people who become your senior engineers in five years.
The wider tech market tells the same story. Adzuna has seen a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT's launch, with graduates facing the toughest job market since 2018 techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. The cuts are sharper still in tech specifically: the UK tech sector cut graduate jobs by 46 percent in the past year, with a further 53 percent drop projected, according to figures from the Institute of Student Employers The Register.
Read those numbers together and a pattern emerges. Employers are pulling back on junior software hiring faster than on any other level, often betting that AI tools cover the gap. That bet creates an opening for anyone willing to think longer term.
The demand for skilled engineers hasn't gone away. In fact, 76% of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). So the market is cutting junior intakes while still failing to fill the senior and specialist roles it needs. That's the trap: stop training juniors today and the specialist shortage gets worse tomorrow.
Where can that talent come from? For engineering, mostly from home. The vast majority of new hires come from the resident labour force, indicating low reliance on international recruitment GOV.UK - Professionals in IT and engineering. If you can't import your way out of the gap, you have to grow your own.
Apprenticeships are already proving the model. In AI roles, apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. Employers who build a pipeline, rather than compete only for finished specialists, are quietly reshaping where their talent comes from.
Start by hiring for trajectory, not a finished CV. With entry-level hiring down to -19% against -10% for senior roles GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK, the junior field is less crowded for employers who show up. Look for curiosity, problem-solving and the ability to learn a codebase, then build the specialist skills in-house.
The point is to treat early careers hiring as a software advantage, not a cost. The firms training juniors now will own the specialist skills that 76% of employers are already struggling to recruit Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET).
Finding early-career engineers at speed is exactly what we're built for. 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're ready to start building your engineering pipeline, let's find your next junior engineer together.
