Britain’s fintech labour market continues to expand despite an increasingly unsettled macroeconomic backdrop. Vacancies are forecast to rise by close to 14% in 2026, following a sharper 28% increase the previous year. London remains overwhelmingly dominant. Hiring in the capital is projected to grow by just over 14%, lifting its share of national fintech vacancies from nearly 67% in 2024 to around 71% this year. Early-month data suggests the momentum is not merely seasonal.
The UK tax labour market is entering a correction phase after a sharp expansion in 2025. Vacancies rose by around 19% last year, but are now projected to decline by roughly 10% in 2026, pointing to stabilisation rather than contraction.
Hosted in Partnership with Mercury CRM, the AI Transformation Forum is a quarterly breakfast event, for business owners and senior executives who are interested in how technology is transforming business and what this means for hiring trends as a result.
Hosted in Partnership with Mercury CRM, the AI Transformation Forum is a quarterly breakfast event, for business owners and senior executives who are interested in how technology is transforming business and what this means for hiring trends as a result.
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.
