The skills gap you cannot hire your way out of

 

The talent market has split in two

The La Fosse H2 2026 Workforce Insights Report reveals what is really happening in the UK technology talent market, and why the second half of the year calls for a different kind of workforce plan. 

Built from live placement data across thousands of roles, combined with insight from our specialists, it shows a market that has bifurcated. Generalist talent has rarely been more available. Specialist talent, across AI, data, cloud and cyber, has rarely been scarcer or more expensive. The organisations that treat their whole workforce as one market will misprice both. 

The report makes one thing clear. The skills gap is now a question of scale, not awareness, and it has grown too large to hire your way out of. The organisations that will pull ahead are the ones building capability inside their teams, not just buying it in. 

The numbers that matter

  • 94% of the UK workforce will need some form of upskilling or retraining by 2030 to stay fully effective 
  • Employer investment in training per employee has fallen by around 19% in real terms since 2011 
  • AI and machine learning salaries have outpaced the wider market by more than 12% in the past twelve months 
  • Worldwide IT spending is set to reach $6.31 trillion in 2026, up 13.5% year on year, and hiring demand follows investment 
  • Only 28% of women in technology see a clear path to the C-suite 

The market reality at a glance

Demand for specialist capability is growing faster than any organisation can hire it. Salaries have split into two markets, IT investment is accelerating, and the skills rising fastest are a blend of technical fluency and commercial judgement that is genuinely hard to find. 

At the same time, the money going into building skills has been falling for over a decade, just as the need for them has never been higher. That is the gap. It cannot be closed by competing for the same scarce specialists as everyone else, at the same rising price.

The organisations getting this right are making capability decisions role by role, across hire, build and borrow, rather than defaulting to a new hire every time. They are treating upskilling as a retention strategy as well as a workforce strategy. And they are using the apprenticeship levy they already pay to build the skills the external market cannot supply. 

Whether you are shaping your workforce plan for H2 or benchmarking against a market that keeps moving, this report gives you the clarity to act. 

“In 2026, the question is no longer whether to hire, but which talent model fits which problem, and how quickly organisations can adapt.”

Ollie Whiting, Group CEO, La Fosse 

The H2 2026 Workforce Insights Report provides practical insight and guidance across: 

  • The market in 60 seconds, and the five actions to prioritise now 
  • The shift from AI adoption to AI execution, and where the capability gap really sits 
  • Why the UK skills gap is bigger than the data shows 
  • Live salary benchmarks across permanent, contract and Academy rates for every practice area, including cloud, infosec, data, engineering, product, architecture, change, ERP, CRM and finance 
  • The emerging AI roles reshaping the market, from AI governance to agentic operations 
  • Workforce strategy in depth, covering retention, the economic case for diversity and the regulatory outlook 
  • The hire, build and borrow framework, and how to choose the right model for each capability gap 

Get the full report to see where the skills gap is hiding in your organisation, and how to build the capability that closes it.

H2 2026 Workforce Insights Report

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