AI & Data Focus – UK Tech Labour Market Trends, March 2026
AI Hiring Boom Drives Record Demand for Data Professionals
Key findings include:
- Recruitment for data professionals rose 18.4% year-on-year in 2025, with 2026 on track for a further 13.2% increase.
- London extended its lead, with its share of national postings rising by 6.6 percentage points since 2024.
- Professional services recorded 83.6% growth, outpacing all other sectors on momentum.
- The largest recruiters of data professionals are overwhelmingly financial institutions
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Demand for Data professionals is growing rapidly
The UK’s data and AI labour market reached record levels in 2025, with vacancies rising 18.4% year-on-year as businesses moved beyond pilot programmes and began integrating AI into core workflows at scale. Annualised 2026 figures point to a further 13.2% increase, with January and February already posting year-on-year growth of 20.0% and 31.7% respectively. If current trends continue, one in four jobs in the sector will have been created in the last two years, a pace of growth unmatched by virtually any other part of the UK economy.
Growth has been nationwide, but London is powering ahead
Most of the UK has seen recruitment rise significantly, though hiring has become more concentrated in the capital. London has extended its dominance, capturing a disproportionate share of new roles as large London-based corporations out-invest SMEs. Its share of national postings rose by 6.6 percentage points between 2024 and 2026 as a result. Other regions have nonetheless also seen strong growth, particularly across the North, where government investment in data infrastructure and cost advantages over London have supported hiring, though the West Midlands stand out as one of the few regions to have seen a decline over the last two years.
TMT firms are leading on recruitment, though professional services lead on growth
At a sector-by-sector level, TMT leads on total postings, which have grown by a remarkable 70% since 2024, though professional services firms are moving faster still, recording an 83.6% increase in recruitment as they race to build AI and data practices from a lower baseline. Financial services growth, at 34.4%, is solid but more measured, reflecting a higher level of pre-existing data integration and regulatory constraints around automation. The public sector is the clear laggard, with postings falling across both years as recruitment freezes take hold.
Banks stand out in terms of hiring volume
Banking dominates the top of the hiring table, with JPMorgan, Barclays and Lloyds the standout performers in 2025, both in terms of volume and growth, with all three increasing recruitment by more than 50%. While the volume reflects the sector’s high concentration, with individual banks naturally posting higher volumes than counterparts in more fragmented sectors, the growth figures reflect a broader phenomenon. Accenture more than tripled its postings, LSEG nearly doubled, and Amazon, BT and Legal & General all grew meaningfully, reflecting just how important business leaders believe data has become.
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