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May 5, 2026
The UK labour market in 2026 looks sharply different to where it stood even 18 months ago. Candidate availability is up, permanent placements have slowed. The KPMG REC Report on Jobs for April 2026 confirmed what many employers have been sensing for months, there are more people in the market than there have been in years.
On the surface, this should be welcome news for hiring managers . More CVs landing in your inbox should mean more choice, compressed hiring timelines and less competition for talent, but that isn’t what we’re seeing.
The reality is that more applicants does not automatically translate into more suitable candidates. For employers in manufacturing recruitment, finance recruitment and office support hiring, the gulf between volume and quality has become one of the most exasperating recruitment challenges of the year.
There is a common assumption that a softer job market will make filling vacancies simple. If more people are looking for work, surely the right person is among them?
Unfortunately, it rarely works out that way.
What we’re actually seeing is a sharp increase in speculative applications, candidates applying for roles they are not qualified for, or roles they wouldn’t realistically accept, this creates a substantial applicant screening burden for hiring managers who are already stretched thin. You might receive 80 applications for a single vacancy and still struggle to shortlist five credible candidates.
The skills gap has not disappeared just because more people are available . ONS labour market data from April 2026 shows that while workforce availability has increased across most regions, the increase is concentrated in entry-level and generalist roles, specialist positions, the kind that actually move a business forward, remain stubbornly difficult to fill.
The fact is that candidate quality vs quantity is the real story of 2026. A larger applicant pool means more CV filtering, more hours consumed by shortlisting, and often the same outcome the best person for the role still isn’t easy to find.
Even in what some are calling an employer-driven market, the strongest candidates have not suddenly become desperate. They’re weighing up their options with care, those in stable roles with good benefits and clear progression.
Passive candidates, the ones who are not actively job searching but would consider the right opportunity, remain the hardest to attract. These individuals are unlikely to respond to a generic job advert, they won’t tolerate a slow or disorganised recruitment process either.
For specialist roles in manufacturing and finance, candidate motivation is often tied to very specific factors . Some are looking for a shorter commute, others want exposure to a particular technology or market. A surprising number are simply holding out for the right culture fit. Salary matters, but it isn’t always the deciding factor.
This is where employer value proposition becomes so important. If you can’t articulate what makes your company different, and back it up with evidence, the best candidates will look elsewhere. They have options, even in a softer market . They know it.
One of the most common hiring difficulties in 2026 is the disconnect between what employers want to pay and what candidates expect to earn, the cost of living has not retreated in any meaningful way. And candidates who secured pay rises during the talent shortage of 2022 to 2024 are reluctant to take a step backwards.
Salary benchmarking should be a non-negotiable part of your hiring strategy. If you’re advertising a role at £35,000 when the market rate has shifted to £40,000, you’ll attract a high volume of underqualified applicants and lose the candidates you actually want, it’s as simple as that.
We’re also seeing a rise in counteroffer risk . When a strong candidate hands in their notice, their current employer is more likely than ever to match or exceed the offer, this is common in finance recruitment, where experienced professionals are in short supply and employers understand the cost of replacing them. If your job offers are not genuinely competitive, you’ll find yourself back at square one more often than you’d like.
Speed matters.
The best candidates don’t stick around for long, even when the market is softer, yet many employers are still running recruitment processes that take six to eight weeks from first interview to offer.
Notice periods are compounding the problem. Senior candidates in manufacturing and finance often sit on three-month notice periods, which means even after you’ve identified the right person, you could be waiting until the autumn to get them through the door, if your vacancy fill rate is already under pressure, this kind of delay can erode productivity and dent team morale.
The solution isn’t to rush your decision-making. Instead, look at where the unnecessary hold-ups sit in your process. Are you scheduling second interviews a fortnight after the first ? Are internal stakeholders taking too long to provide feedback? Recruitment process efficiency doesn’t mean cutting corners, it means stripping out the bottlenecks that cost you good candidates.
When you’re receiving a flood of applications, the temptation is to cast a wide net and see who turns up. This approach almost always backfires, you end up with a long list of candidates who look passable on paper but don’t quite fit the brief.
Job criteria tightening is one of the most effective things you can do right now. Be specific about the experience and qualifications you need. Spell out the attributes too, if the role requires someone with five years of experience in a particular sector, say so. If you need a candidate who can start within four weeks, make that clear from the outset.
This doesn’t mean being unreasonable or drafting a wish list that no candidate could ever satisfy. It means being honest about what the role actually requires . And filtering out candidates who don’t meet the brief before they enter your process. Your time is valuable. So is theirs.
A well-defined job specification also sends the right message to strong candidates, it tells them you know what you’re looking for, that you’ve thought carefully about the role, and that you’re serious about finding the right fit. That kind of clarity can be the difference between attracting serious applicants and drowning in speculative ones.
You might be thinking if there are more candidates available, why would I need a recruiter?
The answer comes down to what you do with all that volume. A recruitment agency’s value in a soft market isn’t about sourcing candidates, it’s about filtering them, candidate fit assessment requires more than scanning a CV for keywords . It means understanding someone’s motivations and salary expectations, gauging whether they’re genuinely ready to move, and determining whether they’ll actually accept your offer when it arrives.
The REC labour market report has consistently highlighted that temporary staffing demand remains strong, even as permanent placements slow, this suggests employers are hedging their bets, bringing in temporary support while they work out their longer-term talent acquisition strategy. A good recruiter can help you navigate both sides of that equation.
At CMD Recruitment, we’re seeing first-hand how the market has shifted, more movement, more applications, but the quality is uneven. The employers who are filling roles quickly and successfully in 2026 are the ones who have tightened their criteria, benchmarked their salaries against the current market, and partnered with recruiters who understand the difference between availability and suitability.
With so much focus on hiring, it’s easy to overlook the other side of the equation.
Staff turnover is still one of the most expensive problems a business can face, and the cost of replacing a skilled employee in manufacturing, finance or office support extends well beyond the recruitment fee. If your best people are leaving because they feel undervalued or underpaid, no amount of candidate availability will solve that . You’ll simply be replacing one leaver with another. The cycle continues.
Retention vs recruitment isn’t an either-or conversation. The companies that are thriving in the 2026 job market outlook are the ones investing in both, making sure their current employees want to stay while also positioning themselves to attract the right candidates when vacancies do arise. After all, a strong employer brand doesn’t just help you hire, it helps you keep the people you’ve already got.
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