The picture is mixed, and that matters for anyone planning a hire. Across the wider labour market, conditions are cautious. The Low Pay Commission's 2025 report describes a 'low hire, low fire' market, with weaker recruitment and vacancies below pre-pandemic levels. Yet demand for specialist tech skills tells a different story.
Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026 points to clear demand hotspots for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security, even against a subdued backdrop. The ONS vacancies bulletin for November 2025 backs this up: the largest volume increase in vacancies came in professional, scientific and technical activities, up by 5,000.
So while entry-level hiring has cooled sharply, with techUK reporting a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT launched, experienced specialists remain in demand. A product manager sits firmly in that experienced, specialist camp. That's the tension you're hiring into: a quieter overall market, but real competition for the people who can drive a product forward.
A product manager owns the 'why' and the 'what' of your product. They decide what to build next, why it matters to users, and how success gets measured. In a growing team, they're the bridge between your engineers, your commercial goals and the people who use what you make. Get this hire right and your roadmap gets sharper. Get it wrong and your team ships busily without moving the numbers.
The role is pulling in the specialist skills the market prizes. Accenture data reported by The Register shows demand for AI skills rose nearly 200% in a year, with London accounting for 80% of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all UK technology vacancies. A modern product manager increasingly needs to reason about AI features, data and where enterprise applications are heading, not just tick off a backlog.
Skills England's 2026 annual skills report names digital occupations among the priority areas already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly. That's good news for your team's ambitions and a reason to plan the hire carefully rather than leave it to chance.
Start with outcomes, not a job title. Write down the two or three results you need in the next year: a clearer roadmap, a launched feature, a retention lift. Then describe the person who can deliver them. This keeps you from copying a generic spec and helps you spot strong people who don't fit the usual mould.
Widen your view of where good people come from. The old graduate pipeline has narrowed: The Register reports UK tech graduate jobs fell by 46% in a year, with a further drop projected. At the same time, alternative routes are maturing. The government's AI Labour Market Survey 2025 shows apprenticeships rose from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025. A great product manager might come from a support, engineering or analyst background rather than a straight product path.
Then move at pace on your strongest people. Even in a cautious market, Computer Weekly notes demand stays high for specialist tech skills. The candidates you want are the ones others want too. A slow, unstructured process is where good hires slip away. Define your assessment up front, keep interview stages tight, and give feedback quickly.
We search a database of 15 million candidates to find people who match the outcomes you've described, then rank a shortlist and handle the process end to end. 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. Tell us the role and we'll start building your shortlist today.
