The Northern Ireland job market hasn’t stalled – it’s sharpened. Our Spring/Summer 2026 Hiring Trends Update surveyed over 150 Northern Irish employers and 396 workers to understand how hiring is changing. Three connected stories stand out: a reality check on pressures facing both sides, a great adaptation as employers and candidates adjust, and genuine signals of resilience.
The bottom line? Hiring is still happening, but in a more focused and selective way. Organisations moving with clear priorities, robust processes, and compelling offer are best positioned to compete.
Chapter 1: The Reality Check – A More Active Market, But a Tougher Path to Hire
Hiring activity remains surprisingly robust as 38% of employers increased recruitment over the last six months. However, the path to securing that talent is steepening. Hiring confidence has dipped slightly, signalling a shift from volume-based recruitment to finding the perfect fit.
Employers are navigating a complex backdrop of rising input costs and a higher wage floor. We found that over 40% of employers have had to scale back headcount plans due to National Living Wage increases, with entry-level roles taking the hardest hit. Finding the right skills and preventing candidate drop-off are now the primary bottlenecks. To adapt, businesses are investing more time in deliberate workforce planning and role redesign before ever taking a job to market.
What to do: Tighten must-have skills, benchmark your full offer, and reduce friction with clear stages and faster feedback.
“There are signs that Northern Ireland’s economic outperformance is waning with a loss of momentum noted… The reality of tax rises and increases in the NLW are simply catching up with the labour market.”
“Rising energy/input costs, supply chain disruption and increased uncertainty have been the main impacts so far… In time this will feed through to the labour market.”
– Richard Ramsey, Professor of Practice in Economic & Policy, Queen’s Business School
Chapter 2: The Great Adaptation – Both Sides Are Adjusting
Both employers and candidates are fundamentally rethinking their approach. Four in five (80%) Talent Acquisition professionals report their role has become more strategic, stepping beyond pure delivery to influence broader workforce planning and process design.
On the candidate side, rapid technological change is driving a profound shift. Spurred by a “Fear of Becoming Obsolete” (FOBO) – an anxiety now felt by over a third of the workforce – the talent pool is actively upskilling rather than freezing. Budgets are subsequently flowing toward roles that compound capability, and workers are remining highly adaptable, with 91% stating they would move industries if needed. Recruiters are mirroring this adaptation, with a growing majority integrating automation tools to stay competitive.
What to do: Equip TA with data and decision rights, hire for capability and learnability, and lean into AI for efficiency while guarding the human elements of the candidate experience.
“A surge in labour costs coupled with rapid developments in technology, such as automation and AI, has shifted the balance away from employees.”
“‘Fear of Becoming Obsolete’, or FOBO, is growing workplace anxiety… [but it] has led to an increased uptake of digital and AI skills by employees. New roles and opportunities are continually being created.”
– Richard Ramsey, Professor of Practice in Economic & Policy, Queen’s Business School
Chapter 3: Resilience – The Signals That Hiring is Still Moving
Despite broader economic headwinds and measured employer confidence, hiring intent remains resilient. Only a tiny fraction (5%) of employers expect to decrease hiring in the months ahead.
On the other side of the desk, candidate openness remains remarkably high, with 65% of workers actively open to a new offer. Yet, this restless talent pool is navigating a highly congested process. Nearly three-quarters of candidates report they don’t hear back beyond an auto-reply, highlighting a massive potential advantage for proactive talent teams. Converting this high candidate interest into actual hires now depends heavily on an employer’s ability to present credible, competitive offers and a respectful, highly efficient feedback loop.
What to do: Keep hiring tethered to strategy, compress decision cycles, and communicate clearly from the very first touchpoint to the final offer.
“Looking to the year ahead, the majority of job losses will not be due to AI or technology. Instead, they are likely to be due to broader economic forces such as increased cost pressures and lack of competitiveness.”
“The labour market, like elsewhere, faces uncertain times. This uncertainty is likely to lead to slower hiring as employers pause recruitment investment. The Great Hunkering Down beckons.”
– Richard Ramsey, Professor of Practice in Economic & Policy, Queen’s Business School
The NIJobs Perspective
“The signal from this edition is clear: Northern Ireland’s labour market hasn’t stalled, but the outperformance is fading and the momentum is shifting. Hiring continues, yet the balance of power is tilting as cost pressures, geopolitical shocks, and slower private-sector growth bite. The challenge is no longer volume; it’s viability, including securing the right skills at the right cost while navigating weaker demand, tighter budgets, and rising wage bills.
Employers are adapting, but not expanding broadly. They are sharpening focus, slowing headcount growth, and prioritising roles that protect competitiveness – notably in cybersecurity and AI – while trimming entry-level hiring and recalibrating pay. Workforce planning has moved centre-stage, talent teams are becoming more selective and time-bound, and decisions are increasingly shaped by input-cost inflation, pay deceleration, and softer sentiment.
At the same time, the traditional expectations of long-term employment are continuing to shift. The idea of a ‘job for life’ has largely disappeared outside parts of the public sector, and the concept of a ‘career for life’ is also weakening. Employees are increasingly open to changing direction as technology reshapes the skills landscape and the relevance of existing capabilities. However, a key uncertainty remains: while willingness and employers are still navigating the question of which skills, sectors, and career paths will offer the greatest resilience in the future.
In this phase, resilience isn’t about broad expansion; it’s about disciplined action, targeted capability-building, and prudent pacing in a more uncertain, more demanding environment.”
– Richard Ramsey, Professor of Practice in Economics & Policy, Queen’s Business School