Market Update – July 2026
Unbelievably, we are halfway through 2026, and the mood in Change, Transformation and Tech hiring is best described as cautiously busy. Permanent hiring is still slower than we’d like, but we are seeing an increase in organisations shifting to contract talent to help keep their transformation plans on track.
Here’s what we’re seeing.
Contract is where the action is
According to the latest KPMG and REC Report on Jobs, permanent placements have now fallen for 44 consecutive months, the longest downturn on record. While this is a depressing headline, it doesn’t show the full story. Rather than pausing transformation programmes, businesses are choosing to resource them differently: bringing in contractors to work on specific phases, instead of committing to a permanent hire while the wider outlook stays uncertain. If you’re weighing up your own resourcing model for the next phase of a programme, we can help you get started.
Specialist skills remain in short supply
UK job postings are down 13% year on year, but wage growth for specialist, harder-to-fill roles, such as software development and tech, is still running well ahead of the market average, according to Indeed’s Hiring Lab. The organisations that treat every hire the same, regardless of the scarcity of the skillset, risk losing out on the people who could actually move a programme forward.
When did job descriptions get so long?
Business Insider reported this month that job descriptions have quietly ballooned, up over 14% since 2021. Recruiters quoted in the piece point to something familiar: roles that used to be split across two or three positions are increasingly being folded into one, as hiring managers try to get more from a single headcount in a tighter market.
It’s not a neutral trend. Harvard Business School research published this year confirms women continue to apply to meaningfully fewer roles than men, particularly for senior or “stretch” positions, a pattern that gets worse the longer and more demanding a job spec looks. A sprawling list of “essential” requirements may well be filtering out well-qualified candidates who talk themselves out of applying. If you’re seeing a narrower or less diverse shortlist than you’d like, it might be worth reviewing the job description.
The great AI disconnect
There’s a real gap opening up between how leadership and the workforce experience AI adoption. Microsoft’s 2026 Work Trend Index, reported via Forbes, found that 86% of C-Suite leaders plan to increase AI investment this year. But only 32% say they’ve achieved sustained, enterprise-wide impact, and just one in ten employees agree AI has genuinely transformed how work gets done in their organisation. The takeway isn’t that AI isn’t working – more that most organisations haven’t redesigned the operating model around it. This is one of the topics we’ll exploring more in the next series of Change Makers, launching soon.
Good tech, badly landed
A recurring theme in our Change Makers conversations has been that transformation rarely fails because of the technology. HBR’s research this year backs that up: around 70% of transformation efforts fail, and the leading cause isn’t a flawed business case. It’s leaders who can’t read resistance early enough, or who mistake silence for buy-in. Worth keeping in mind if you’re heading into the next phase of a programme this quarter.
What this means for you
Candidates: If you’re contracting, or thinking about it, this is a good market to be in. Specialist skills are still commanding a premium, and organisations are actively choosing flexible resourcing. Make sure your network knows what you’re looking for, not just that you’re looking.
Hiring organisations: If a programme is stalling, it’s worth asking whether the resourcing model fits the moment, and whether the people side of change has had the same attention as the tech. We spend our time in this market every day, and we’re always happy to talk that what we’re seeing for your sector specifically.
