Demand is sharp but selective. Against a subdued 2025 economic backdrop, businesses took a cautious approach to hiring, yet clear hotspots remain for specialist tech skills including AI, data, enterprise applications and cyber security Computer Weekly's tech recruitment outlook for 2026. In other words, the market is not flat, it is concentrated.
That concentration is easy to see in the AI space. Demand for AI skills rose nearly 200 percent in a year, with London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings and nearly two-thirds of all technology vacancies in the UK Accenture data reported by The Register. If you are hiring software engineers, your open role data sits inside that pull.
The shortage is structural, not seasonal. Some 76 percent of engineering employers struggle to recruit for key roles, with technical and specialist sustainability skills topping the list the Institution of Engineering and Technology's 2025 skills research. A sharper brief is how you compete when the right people are scarce.
Start with the roles the market already flags as critical. IT business analysts, architects and systems designers, a group of around 193,000 workers, are among the occupations in critical demand, with three out of five indicators in critical demand in 2025 the Occupations in demand 2025 release on GOV.UK. If your open roles touch these functions, expect a tighter pool.
Then factor in movement. Some 79 percent of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, covering over 500 employers and 1,000 candidates. High churn cuts both ways: more people are open to a move, and your own engineers are too. Your brief should name what makes the role worth moving for.
The dynamics to read from your data are simple. Which skills keep reappearing across open roles? Where is the talent concentrated against where your work sits? How long do similar roles stay open? Answer those three and the brief almost writes itself.
First, separate the skills that do the job from the ones on the wish list. A long list of nice-to-haves narrows your pool for no reason, which hurts when 76 percent of engineering employers already struggle to recruit for key roles the IET's 2025 skills research. Name three or four core skills, then rank everything else as desirable.
Second, be honest about location and setup. With London accounting for 80 percent of AI-related job postings Accenture data reported by The Register, a remote or hybrid option widens your reach well beyond one city. State it plainly in the brief.
Third, write for people who are already employed. If most technical professionals plan to move in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, your brief needs to answer why switch to us: the problems they will solve, the stack they will use, and how decisions get made. Concrete beats generic every time.
A sharp brief deserves a fast, wide search. We built Reed.ai to read your role, search 15 million candidates and return a ranked shortlist in under 30 seconds, then manage the process end to end through to a booked interview. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Share your open role with us and see your shortlist today.
