The market is cautious but sharply split by skill. Businesses took a careful approach to hiring through a subdued 2025, yet clear demand hotspots remain for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. That pattern shows up in the wider numbers too.
Overall vacancies are softening. Early estimates for April to June 2026 suggest a fall of 7,000 vacancies to 712,000, with professional, scientific and technical activities among the largest decreases the ONS Vacancies and jobs in the UK bulletin. Demand for AI skills, though, tells the opposite story: it rose nearly 200 percent in a year, with London alone accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all UK technology vacancies The Register, reporting Accenture data. So while the top line cools, specialist and security-adjacent roles stay hot.
The sector is also large and growing. The updated digital and technology definition now covers 107,082 companies, or 5.2 percent of all UK businesses GOV.UK digital and technologies sector statistics. That is a lot of employers writing tech briefs, and more of those briefs now touch identity.
Every AI agent, automation script and service account is an identity that needs credentials, permissions and monitoring. As organisations adopt AI faster, the volume of these non-human accounts climbs, and someone has to secure them. That work is landing inside existing engineering and security briefs rather than always getting its own headcount.
Security demand is the clearest signal. A comparison in the AI Labour Market Survey found 70 percent of cyber firms reported at least one hard-to-fill vacancy the GOV.UK AI Labour Market Survey 2025. Meanwhile IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, roughly 193,000 workers, sit among the occupations in critical demand the GOV.UK Occupations in demand 2025 data. These are exactly the people who design how accounts, human and non-human, connect to systems.
The talent picture is fluid. Some 79 percent of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, via the IET. That mobility is an opportunity for employers who write clear, specific briefs, and a risk for those who move slowly.
Start by naming the identity scope in the brief. Say plainly whether the role covers machine identities, service accounts and AI agents, not just user access. Vague briefs attract broad applicants; specific briefs attract the specialists who already do this work. Given how many professionals are open to a move, a precise brief is your fastest filter.
Widen where you look for skills. That means capable candidates now come from more routes than a classic graduate pipeline, which matters because UK tech graduate jobs fell 46 percent in a year The Register, citing Institute of Student Employers figures.
Set pay to the skill, not the average. Top firms can pay well above thresholds for scarce technology skills, while pay for related engineering roles sits broadly in line with the UK average the Migration Advisory Committee review of IT and engineering professionals. Benchmark identity and security specialists against the scarce end, and move quickly once you find the right person.
When a brief needs someone who can secure non-human accounts as well as people, the challenge is finding that specific person fast. We search a database of 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds and can book an interview in minutes, so you spend your time on the right conversations. 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. We handle the search, matching and scheduling around your identity brief, so post your role today and see who fits.
