The wider market is quiet, but not frozen. The Low Pay Commission describes the labour market as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment, only slight rises in redundancies and vacancies now sitting below pre-pandemic levels the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report. That backdrop rewards employers who hire with precision rather than volume.
Even in a subdued year, specialist skills keep pulling demand. The largest volume increase in vacancies from August to October 2025 came in professional, scientific and technical activities, which rose by 5,000 according to the ONS vacancies bulletin for November 2025. Network design sits squarely in that analytical, technical band, which is why demand for it holds up when generalist roles thin out.
The monthly picture is worth watching too, and the KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs tracks how permanent and temporary appointments shift across the country see the KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs. For logistics leaders, the takeaway is simple: competition is sharpest for people who can turn data into better networks.
A network design analyst models where warehouses sit, how stock flows and which routes cost the least time and mileage. Get that right and you grow without adding waste. The role blends data, modelling and commercial judgement, which is exactly the kind of specialist, technical work drawing steady demand as the ONS vacancies data shows.
Data skills are also getting scarcer to buy cheaply across the whole economy. Demand for AI skills rose nearly 200% in a year, with London accounting for 80% of AI-related job postings per Accenture data reported by The Register. Network design analysts compete for the same analytical talent pool, so logistics firms need a clear, quick way to reach the right people before someone else does.
There is a pipeline risk, too. Entry-level hiring has fallen sharply in technical fields: in engineering it dropped to -19% while senior hiring sat at -10%, a nine-percentage-point gap according to GOV.UK's snapshot of entry-level hiring. If firms stop hiring and training juniors now, the mid-level network analysts of five years' time simply will not exist. Building that bench is a growth decision, not a cost decision.
Start with the problem, not the job title. Write the brief around outcomes: what network questions must this person answer, which tools they will use, and how their work links to cost, service and growth. A precise brief matters more in a 'low hire' market, where you want fewer, better applications rather than a flood as the Low Pay Commission's 2025 report suggests.
Then move fast on the people who fit. Specialist analytical talent is in demand across sectors per the ONS vacancies bulletin, so a slow, multi-week process loses strong applicants to quicker employers. Test real skills with a short modelling exercise, keep interview rounds tight, and give clear feedback.
Widening the pool helps too. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025 according to the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025, a reminder that strong analysts can come through non-graduate routes. For logistics, that means considering people from operations, planning or data roles who can grow into network design.
We built Reed.ai to make specialist hiring fast and precise. We search a database of 15 million candidates, surface a ranked shortlist and manage the process end to end, so you can reach the right network design analyst before the market does. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us the network problem you need solved and we will start your shortlist today.
