Advertised pay
£42,500.00
+4.3% vs Q2 2025
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Q2 2026 Jobs Market Report
Advertised pay rose 4.3% and hiring activity we tracked rose 97.8% compared with Q2 2025.
Hiring activity we tracked
97% permanent / 3% contract
+97.8% vs Q2 2025
vs Q1 2026
Pay +3.0%, hiring activity -22.5%
Tracked hiring activity roughly doubled year-on-year in Q2 2026, with IT and engineering pulling further ahead while healthcare and education lost ground, and pay growth held modest despite the surge in volume.
Tracked hiring activity nearly doubles
+97.8%
The volume of hiring activity we tracked grew dramatically compared with the same period last year, roughly doubling. This kind of jump suggests either a genuine rebound in employer demand or a broadening of the listings captured in our tracking — either way, it's the standout figure of the quarter and provides useful context for reading the sector and regional shifts below.
IT extends its lead as the dominant sector
+5.43 pts
IT already accounted for well over a third of tracked hiring activity, and its share climbed further still, posting one of the largest gains of any sector this quarter. This continues a pattern of IT roles pulling disproportionately more of the hiring activity we track relative to other sectors.
Healthcare share pulls back sharply
-3.18 pts
Healthcare's share of tracked hiring activity fell notably, the steepest decline among all sectors this quarter. Combined with education's similarly sizeable pullback, this points to activity concentrating more heavily in sectors like IT and engineering rather than spreading evenly across the economy.
Permanent pay edges up, well behind activity growth
+4.3%
Advertised permanent pay rose only modestly year-on-year, a far more measured move than the sharp increase in tracked hiring volume. This gap suggests the surge in activity has been driven more by breadth of hiring than by wage competition for talent.
North Ayrshire sees an outsized surge in tracked activity
+568.1%
Among the areas we tracked, North Ayrshire recorded by far the largest jump in hiring activity of any region this quarter, even against a backdrop of strong national growth. On a relatively small base of tracked listings, this kind of swing likely reflects a handful of large local employer pushes rather than a broad regional trend.
AI-related job titles remain a niche slice of listings
+0.41%
Despite ongoing attention on AI in the labour market, listings with an explicitly AI-related job title made up only a small fraction of tracked hiring activity this quarter. This suggests that, at least at the job-title level, AI-specific hiring remains a narrow niche rather than a broad category within the roles we track.
Watch whether IT's outsized share gain persists as a structural shift or partly reflects the broader activity surge, and whether pay growth starts to catch up with the pace of hiring activity.
Sector movers
Change in each sector's share of the hiring activity we tracked, Q2 2025 to Q2 2026.
Growing
- IT+5.4% pts
- Engineering+2.5% pts
- Accounting+2.1% pts
Shrinking
- Healthcare-3.2% pts
- Education-2.9% pts
- Construction-1.6% pts
Monthly trend
Within Q2 2026, hiring activity we tracked peaked in April 2026 (dark green below) and was quietest in June 2026 (dark red below).
Based on job listings and advertised salaries we track across the UK. Figures are indicative trends, not a full census of the UK jobs market.