Discover key hiring trends for 2026

At a glance

More applicants doesn't mean more suitable talent

Applications per job ad are climbing, creating bigger shortlists and more noise for TA teams to sift through.

Hiring is measured, but capability competition is real

Employers are cautious with budgets, yet still paying premiums for proven delivery in scarce skill areas.

AI is reshaping expectations, not just job titles

The advantage will go to people and organisations who can show real-world application and ROI.

Speed and clarity are competitive advantages

Even in an employer-led market, slow feedback loops are now costing employers strong candidates.

Early-career pipelines are thinning

Reduced grad and entry-level hiring is building future capability risk, especially as AI changes what “good” looks like.

Foundations matter again

Organisations are recognising that AI and innovation can’t deliver value without strong foundations; refocusing on core systems, infrastructure, and delivery capability.

What's really going on in the hiring market?

While hiring conditions have stabilised, it isn’t a return to business as usual. After several years of volatility, organisations are hiring more intentionally with slower employment growth than pre-COVID, tighter budgets, and greater scrutiny on where new roles deliver real impact.

This measured approach is reflected in our salary and rate data. Across most job families, movement has been modest, with many roles seeing little to no change year-on-year. Where we have seen meaningful uplift, it’s been highly targeted. In Australia, top-end salaries for Microsoft specialist roles increased by around 6%, while in New Zealand, key Digital roles saw average increases of around 3%.

Broad salary inflation has cooled but premiums remain for proven capability, and employers are still willing to pay for experience that can deliver outcomes quickly. Even as overall hiring remains cautious, demand continues for roles tied to infrastructure, platforms, security, and transformation.

The best people have options. The companies winning right now are the ones that move quickly and tell their story well — culture included.

Colin Etheridge
North America CEO
Talent New York

Candidates are currently reluctant to move unless there's a compelling reason — stability, salary uplift, or flexibility still have to be clear.

Alan Dowdall
Practice Manager
Talent Sydney

More applications,
more noise

With more candidates on the market, hiring should feel easier but many employers are finding the opposite.

Rising application volumes are putting real pressure on hiring teams. Larger shortlists, longer screening times, and slower feedback loops are becoming common, while expectations around speed and candidate experience remain high.

As application numbers climb into the hundreds, the risk of losing strong candidates also increases, with high-quality talent disengaging while organisations work through crowded pipelines.

For hiring managers, success in 2026 won’t come from attracting more candidates, but from qualifying better, moving faster, and being clearer on what “good” looks like from the outset.

With some roles attracting 200+ applications, clients are recognising the value of proper qualification processes — especially when many CVs have clearly been AI-optimised.

Georgia Hynes
Senior Recruitment Consultant
Talent Wellington

In competitive skill areas, slow or overly complex hiring processes are still causing organisations to lose candidates to faster-moving competitors.

Alex Nguyen
Account Executive
Talent Sydney

The difference between a good candidate and a great candidate is communication. Having the skill of storytelling and the ability to sell your accomplishments in an interview will put you ahead of most people in the market.

William Kearney
Principal Consultant
Microsoft & Cloud Apps
Talent New York

Capability hotspots: Where demand is concentrating

Even in a steadier market, demand remains strong across core capability clusters. It’s no surprise the big tech skills shaping 2026 continue to be:

Artificial Intelligence
Cyber Security
Microsoft Systems
Engineering

Across the globe, hiring momentum is concentrated around roles that either protect core operations or enable future transformation. Foundational capability is firmly back in focus — particularly around infrastructure, systems engineering, network automation, and data centre capability — as organisations look to strengthen the platforms that underpin long-term value.

At the same time, demand is sharpening for experienced practitioners who can apply technology in real-world environments. Beyond designing solutions or talking strategy, the most sought-after professionals are the ones who can build, deliver, and exercise sound judgement in complex settings.

This shift is especially evident in the AI space. While experimentation continues, the premium is increasingly sitting with experience rather than potential. Employers becoming more discerning, prioritising people who can clearly articulate impact, manage risk, and demonstrate ROI.

Cyber security remains a clear pressure point. Ongoing skills shortages across architecture, governance, operations, and risk mean organisations are competing for a limited pool of proven talent, often driven by urgency rather than long-term planning.

Infrastructure and systems engineers are back in focus. Organisations are realising they need strong foundations in place before AI can truly deliver value.

JP Browne
Practice Manager
Talent Auckland

AI and senior engineers with real enterprise implementation experience remain extremely hard to find, and that scarcity is only going to continue pushing salaries up.

Ruth Marks
Senior Account Manager
Talent Sydney

AI capability will become a baseline expectation across technical roles in 2026, and those who can demonstrate a combination of deep technical expertise with real-world, business impact will command a clear salary premium.

Scarlett Cooke
Account Director
Talent Sydney

Industry breakdown

This year, "in demand" is less about job titles and more about technological capability.

Financial Services

AI Engineering
Platform Engineering
Data Architecture
Threat & Vulnerability Management
Infrastructure & Network Automation
Identity & Access Management

Telecommunications

Network Engineering
Fibre Optical Network Engineering
Radio Frequency (RF) Engineering
Telecommunications Project Delivery
Field Network Operations & Maintenance
Network Operations (NOC)

Public Sector

ITIL Implementation
Data Architecture
IT Security Operations
Microsoft Azure Machine Learning
Cyber Security
Governance

Industries such as defence, utilities, health, mining, and higher education continue to command high quality talent to ensure successful delivery of key growth and transformational initiatives across the state.

Sam Scarfo
‍Senior Account Executive
Talent Adelaide

Infrastructure and network automation skills are commanding strong demand,
particularly where organisations are scaling AI and cloud environments.

Elliott Howard
Account Director
Talent Sydney

Stability now,
flexibility later

Many organisations have pulled back on contractor spend, favouring permanent and fixed-term hiring to manage cost and risk. Candidates have responded by prioritising stability, with many contractors accepting fixed-term roles and permanent employees becoming more selective about when they move.

However, as projects shift from planning to delivery, demand for specialist contract capability will return in 2026, particularly across digital, AI, cyber security and transformation roles where speed and flexibility matter most.

We’re seeing candidates increasingly trade top-of-market contract rates for longer-term contracts or permanent roles that offer stability and continuity.

Edwin Foo
Principal Account Manager
Talent Perth

Many candidates are prioritising project certainty — a funded 3–5-year pipeline often matters more than the highest base salary.

David Gonsalves
Head of Professional Services
Talent Perth

What does this mean for you in 2026?

For job seekers

Capability beats confidence

Feeling confident isn’t the same as being competitive. In 2026, the edge will go to candidates who can demonstrate judgement, delivery and real-world impact — not just skills or tool familiarity.

Be deliberate about when you move

Many professionals are staying put due to market uncertainty. The strongest candidates will move with intention (consider clear scope, credible leadership, genuine progression, and compensation that stacks up)rather than jumping at the first option out of frustration or fear.

AI fluency needs evidence

AI is becoming a baseline expectation. What matters is how you’ve applied it and where it improved outcomes, reduced risk or enabled better decisions.

Balance stability with trajectory

In a flatter salary market, the roles that pay off long term are the ones that build capability. Prioritising opportunities with clear progression, learning exposure, and access to strong leaders will do more for your future earning power than chasing short-term pay increases alone.

For hiring managers

Retention isn't loyalty

Low turnover can hide disengagement. With 69% of workers unsure their employer would fight to keep them, experience and communication gaps matter more than ever.

Hire for execution, not volume

Even in a candidate-saturated market, more applications won’t solve capability gaps. Clear role definition, disciplined qualification and faster decision-making will.

Leadership capability is a workforce lever

When leaders communicate clearly, make sound decisions and build trust, teams move faster, stay engaged and deliver more consistently. In AI-enabled environments, strong leadership reduces friction, improves adoption and helps organisations retain critical capability.

Design for capability, not titles

As roles continue to shift, the organisations that align skills, learning, and leadership around real work — rather than role labels — will be best positioned for 2026 and beyond.

If you're a jobseeker

The hiring market continues to change. Here’s what you can do as a jobseeker to get ahead:

Keep your skills fresh.

As technology continues to evolve, it’s important to keep your skills up to date. Skilling up in key areas such as AI, cybersecurity, data analysis, cloud computing, and software development will hold you in good stead for the next 12 months.

Be flex on flex work.

The working landscape is shifting. Many employers, particularly across Australia and New Zealand, are increasingly seeking that team members spend the majority of their week in the office. So, if more remote work days aren’t on the table, see if you can come to a happy medium with prospective employers around flexibility – it could be presented in different ways to meet your needs e.g., compressed work weeks, amended start and end times, flexible hours, or time in lieu.

Tailor your resume.

Where employers were more open to hiring candidates who weren’t an exact match for a role during the candidate-short market of the past few years, they are now increasingly in search of candidates who meet more of their requirements. Consider tailoring your CV to the role you’re applying for and highlighting transferrable skills to demonstrate how good of a match you are for the position.

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Companies are becoming fussier, with an expectation of an 80%-90% match to the job profile, whereas throughout the COVID period, candidates with a 60%-70% match were being hired._{Matthew Munson, Talent Sydney Managing Director}

Consider your salary expectations.

With companies becoming increasingly cost-conscious, salaries across a number of job families are stabilising and seeing decreases. As a result, you may need to adjust your salary expectations to align with the market and what employers are offering.

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If organisations have two candidates that they can’t pick between, they will pick the best priced candidate._{Nik King-Turner, Talent Wellington Managing Director}

What's important to you?

If an employer can’t offer you the salary you’re after, consider what else they can bring to the table in terms of share schemes, flexibility, progression opportunities, and benefits.

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With more candidates competing for jobs, the advice to candidates is to be flexible and think holistically around what matters most when considering an opportunity._{Matthew Munson, Talent Sydney Managing Director}

See what's on offer.

If you’re considering a new role, uncover opportunities in tech, transformation and beyond that are best suited to you.

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If you're an employer

With the global tech skills shortage sticking around, demand for hard-to-find, highly skilled talent isn’t going anywhere (even in a shifting market). If you want to bring the best on board, here’s what you need to know:

Ensure flexibility is still on the table.

Top tech candidates are still seeking flexibility from their employers, so it’s important that this is on offer. If you want to bring the best in tech on board, meeting your people’s needs when it comes to flex work is key. Where you can’t offer remote work, what else can you bring to the table to ensure your people feel supported? Think – flexible start and end times, school drop off and pick up times, and compressed work weeks.

Offer opportunities for progression.

Jobseekers are seeking career progression and development – it matters most to almost half (48%) of tech professionals when looking for a job. Candidates are starting to ask about progression opportunities with prospective employers from the get-go, meaning if you want to attract the best, you need to be making these opportunities clear upfront.

Highlight the journey a candidate can have with your company and the development opportunities on offer, to help them see a future with you. Also, be willing to go for the 80% fit candidate who you can train and develop - you’ll be opening yourself up to a wider talent pool who will stick by you for the long haul.

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Employers are being asked about [progression opportunities] more directly in interviews or through us._{Taliya Lukeman, Talent Adelaide Account Executive}

Prioritise your company culture.

Your company culture can make or break a candidate’s decision to work with you. According to a Talent survey, 76% of tech jobseekers cited that a positive company culture matters most to them when looking for a job. Building a strong and inclusive working environment is key to this - whether it’s delivering on perks that your people want, ensuring there’s transparent business communication, or making sure DEIB is prioritised, it all makes a difference to your people.

Uncover how business leaders across the globe are leading the way when it comes to company culture in our podcast series here.

Consider your ESG commitment.

Tech candidates are more conscious of their environmental and social impact than ever, so much so that it even influences their working life, seeing jobseekers looking to align with companies whose values in this space match their own. In fact, 59% of tech candidates have said that a company’s commitment to environmental sustainability influences their decision to accept a job offer. If you want to attract the best, CSR and ESG initiatives should be a priority for your company for the year ahead.

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Key Trends

At a glance

More applicants doesn't mean more suitable talent

Hiring is measured, but capability competition is real

AI is reshaping expectations, not just job titles