The wider UK labour market is quiet. Analysts describe it as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies now sitting below pre-pandemic levels Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK. That backdrop shapes how banks plan investment operations hiring today.
Even so, demand hasn't disappeared, it has concentrated. The largest volume increase in vacancies over August to October 2025 came in the professional, scientific and technical activities sector, which rose by 5,000 ONS – Vacancies and jobs in the UK: November 2025. Employers took a cautious approach through 2025, but there were clear demand hotspots for specialist skills including AI, data and cyber security Computer Weekly (tech recruitment outlook 2026). For investment operations teams that lean heavily on data, controls and technology, that pattern matters.
Investment operations covers trade settlement, reconciliations, corporate actions, fund accounting, collateral and the data and controls that hold it all together. The gravity is shifting towards technical and data-heavy work. Demand for AI skills increased nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK The Register (Accenture data). Much of that hiring lands in and around financial services in the capital.
At the same time, the entry-level end has thinned. Adzuna has seen a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT's launch, with graduates facing the toughest market since 2018 techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. Routes into the profession are changing too: apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. Banks that only chase senior hires risk starving their own future pipeline.
Start with precision. In a low-hire market, a vague brief slows everything down, so define the exact skills each investment operations role needs: the systems, the asset classes, the regulatory knowledge and the controls experience. That clarity lets you compare people fairly and move quickly when the right person appears.
Then protect the pipeline at both ends. Senior specialists are scarce and contested, so speed and a clear process win them. Early-career and apprenticeship routes are worth building deliberately, especially as apprenticeships take a growing share of technical hiring GOV.UK / DSIT – AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. Grow the reconciliations analyst of 2028 now, while the graduate market is quiet techUK – What's actually happening with entry-level and graduate jobs?. Balance both, keep the process short and human, and you build a team that lasts.
We search a database of 15 million candidates to find the people who match your investment operations brief, and we manage the process end to end so your team can stay focused on the desk. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell Reed.ai the role you need to fill and we'll get started.
