The UK tech market is cautious, not frozen. Against a subdued 2025 economic backdrop, businesses took a careful approach to hiring, but there were clear demand hotspots for specialist skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security, according to Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. That pattern matters for product managers, who sit at the centre of exactly these specialist areas.
The wider labour market is best described as low hire, low fire: recruitment is weaker and vacancies have dropped below pre-pandemic levels, as set out in the Low Pay Commission Report 2025. Yet there are bright spots. The largest volume increase in vacancies from August to October 2025 was in professional, scientific and technical activities, which rose by 5,000, per the ONS Vacancies and jobs in the UK bulletin for November 2025.
Demand for AI skills in particular is climbing fast. It rose nearly 200% in a year, with London accounting for 80% of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK, according to Accenture data reported by The Register. For a growing software team, that means the product managers you want are also the ones the market wants.
The gap is at the top of the funnel, not the top of the org chart. UK tech cut graduate jobs by 46% in the past year, with a further 53% drop projected, according to figures from the Institute of Student Employers reported by The Register. Adzuna has also seen a 30% drop in UK entry-level job postings since ChatGPT launched, notes techUK's analysis of entry-level and graduate jobs. Employers are concentrating on proven, senior specialists who can deliver from day one.
That squeeze on early-career hiring makes experienced product talent harder to reach, so the pool you draw from needs to be wide. Digital occupations remain among the most in-demand: digital, engineering and construction roles appear most commonly among priority occupations, many already experiencing high recruitment demand and expected to keep growing strongly, per the Skills England annual skills report 2026.
Product managers also increasingly need fluency in AI-driven products, and the way teams build those skills is shifting. Apprenticeships have risen from 3% of AI hires in 2020 to 19% in 2025, according to the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025 report. Growing teams that blend experienced hires with home-grown talent widen their options.
Start with outcomes. Write the role around the problems the product manager must solve in the first 6 to 12 months, not a wish list of tools. In a specialist-led market where demand clusters around AI, data and enterprise applications, as Computer Weekly notes, being precise about the domain you need helps the right people recognise themselves in your advert.
Cast a wide net for talent. Skills England lists digital roles among the priority occupations expected to keep growing strongly, so competition is real, per the Skills England annual skills report 2026. Look beyond people actively applying, and consider blended routes: with AI apprenticeships now at 19% of AI hires, per the DSIT AI Labour Market Survey 2025, you can grow product capability as well as buy it.
Then move quickly. In a low hire, low fire market, described in the Low Pay Commission Report 2025, strong product managers rarely stay available for long. A tight, well-run process, clear scope, a couple of focused conversations and a fast decision, wins the people worth hiring.
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