The State of Hiring 2026: Why We Didn’t Publish Another Salary Guide
Every year, hiring leaders are presented with a growing stack of salary guides. Different formats. Different sector cuts. Slightly different numbers.
Taken together, most 2026 guides broadly agree on the same themes: salary growth has moderated, unemployment remains low, and experienced talent is still selective.
On paper, the market looks stable. And yet, talk to anyone looking for people…hiring feels harder.
Roles are taking longer to fill. Shortlists are thinner. Offers are falling apart late in the process. Decisions that once took weeks are stretching into months. Even when budgets are approved, momentum is fragile.
This gap between what the data says and what leaders are experiencing is what prompted us to take a different approach.
Why another salary guide wouldn’t help
Salary benchmarks still matter and the vast majority of those available on the market are exceptionally well researched and invaluable to both recruiters and jobseekers alike. While they provide essential context, they only answer one question: what a role costs.
They don’t explain:
- why well-funded roles stall
- why competitive offers fail to convert
- or why delay is quietly becoming the biggest risk in hiring
Most guides also look at the market in isolation. They don’t account for what happens once a role goes live: approval cycles, shifting scope, decision fatigue, or candidate disengagement during slow processes.
That’s where hiring outcomes are now being shaped.
What we did instead
Rather than publishing another set of pay tables, we reviewed the dominant 2026 salary guides side by side and compared them against live hiring activity, employer decision-making, and candidate behaviour we see every day.
The aim wasn’t to challenge the market data. It was to complete the picture.
What emerged was a consistent pattern:
- Hiring outcomes in 2026 are being shaped less by market conditions and more by execution.
- Speed, role clarity, approval discipline, and momentum now have a greater impact on success than incremental salary movement alone.
What the report focuses on
The State of Hiring 2026 is not a trends report. It’s an interpretation of where pressure really sits.
The paper breaks down:
- why hiring pressure is uneven, not universal
- how delay has become the biggest hidden cost in hiring
- why salary does not fix weak or unclear briefs
- why candidates are open to move, but far less patient
- and why hiring risk is increasingly being underestimated at leadership level
Individually, none of these signals suggest a broken market.
Collectively, they explain why hiring feels harder than the data suggests.
How leaders should use it
This is not a diagnostic tool or a checklist. It’s a lens.
For leaders hiring in 2026, the most important shift is recognising that many of today’s hiring pressures sit within organisational control. Role definition, prioritisation, decision-making discipline, and process ownership now matter as much as compensation.
Understanding what the market says is no longer enough.
What matters is how that information is interpreted and acted on in practice.
If you’re hiring this year and want clearer context on where risk is building and what you can realistically control, you can download the full report below.
