If you want to set a realistic software time to hire, start with the state of the market you're hiring into. The wider UK labour market is best described as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies dropping below pre-pandemic levels Low Pay Commission Report 2025, GOV.UK. That matters because a softer market changes how long roles stay open and how much competition you face for the right person.
The latest numbers show vacancies still easing. Early estimates for April to June 2026 suggest a decrease of 7,000 (0.9%) vacancies to 712,000, compared with January to March 2026 ONS - Vacancies and jobs in the UK. Vacancy estimates decreased in 10 of the 18 sectors, with the largest decreases in professional, scientific and technical activities, down 4,000 vacancies ONS - Vacancies and jobs in the UK. Technical hiring sits inside that trend, so your baseline should reflect it.
There's also a supply signal worth reading. There were 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy in March to May 2026, a ratio that has remained at 2.5 since July to September 2025 ONS - Vacancies and jobs in the UK. More available people per role can mean a larger applicant pool to sift, which affects how you plan each stage of your process.
Headline vacancy figures hide the detail that really sets your clock: the specific roles that are hard to fill. In engineering, 76% of employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). When a skill is scarce, the search and shortlisting stages take longer, so your time to hire for those roles should be set higher than for general positions.
The seniority mix matters too. In engineering, entry-level hiring has fallen to -19% while senior hiring sits at -10%, a 9-percentage-point gap GOV.UK - A snapshot of entry-level hiring in the UK. A pull-back at entry level alongside steadier senior demand tells you where the pipeline is tight, and which roles may need a longer runway to fill well.
Then there's candidate movement. 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET) / Rise Technical, drawn from a survey of over 500 employers and 1000 candidates Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET) / Rise Technical. High intent to move means strong people are in play but also in demand, so a slow process loses them. Your software time to hire should assume active competition for anyone good.
Good engineering hiring starts with evidence, not assumptions. Pull live role data for the exact title, skill and seniority you're filling, then set a stage-by-stage target: time to first shortlist, time to first interview and time to offer. Because 76% of employers struggle to recruit for key roles Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), build in extra time for scarce technical and sustainability skills rather than applying one flat target across every vacancy.
Next, map your timeline to candidate behaviour. With 79% of technical professionals planning to move in 2026 Engineering and Technology Jobs (IET) / Rise Technical, the people you want are often weighing more than one option. Keep the process short and clear, respond quickly, and remove any stage that doesn't help you decide. Speed at the top of the funnel protects you when the market is competitive.
Finally, review the baseline often. The wider market is still shifting, with vacancies down 7,000 (0.9%) to 712,000 in April to June 2026 ONS - Vacancies and jobs in the UK. A time to hire you set six months ago may already be out of date. Treat your target as a living number, re-checked against current role evidence, so your software reflects reality rather than a fixed guess.
Once you've grounded your targets in live role evidence, you need a way to act on them at speed. An AI recruitment agent searches a database of 15 million candidates and moves through the early stages fast: a ranked shortlist in under 30 seconds, matched candidates contacted in under 1 minute, and an interview booked in under 3 minutes. Those are system speeds, not hire times, but they give you realistic data points to set each stage of your process against.
Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. That's about finding the right engineer and managing the whole process for you. Ready to set a time to hire you can actually meet? Try Reed.ai on your next engineering role.
