The market is WEIRD… Update Q2 2026

Clients ask us all the time “how’s the market?” and right now it’s harder than ever to give a succinct summary. The closest I can describe the market would be that it has the feel of when we were coming OUT of the credit crunch.

For UK finance professionals (and recruiters!) the last decade has been a relentless obstacle course.

In a relatively short space of time accountants have faced; Brexit and all the associated migraines, global covid pandemic and furlough chaos, instant stock market crash, the rise of hybrid working, inflation and UK cost of living spiral, government change, increased NI and wage pressures, war in eastern Europe, US tariffs and now oil spikes based on war in the Gulf…

Finance teams have had to show incredible tenacity, versatility, grit and determination and it’s quite incredible really how well the accounting community has responded to the conveyor belt of wacky and wonderful macro challenges.

January felt like we had finally all dusted ourselves down, taken another deep breath, put our big pants back on and decided enough was enough and this was the year we were going to make things happen.

At this end, the job board started with a bang and there was instant and obvious increased demand.  The phone rang loudly on 2nd Jan and most commonly the request was for a new FD, FC or a commercial finance business partner.

There was lots of activity in owner led businesses looking to drive 2026 growth, businesses that had recently attracted PE investment and businesses that were looking to explore getting ‘sale ready’.

Jan was pretty manic.  Feb was the same and March ended up being really busy. Pipeline of work for Q2 looks solid.

But it’s the WEIRDEST and most puzzling market I have ever recruited in…

…Because there’s so many mixed messages.

Lots of contradiction.

Lots of polarised opinion and disparity when it comes to outlook and forecasts.

If I take Monday of last week – I met an FD of an ecommerce SME at 10am – they are having  the best year of their 30 year history.  They are massively up YoY and already miles ahead of a punchy budget.  I recruited a newly qualified FBP for them 6 months ago and now growth means they need another one.

At 13:00 I had lunch with the MD and FD of another wholesale business operating based about 4 miles from the first. Not dramatically dissimilar business size or shape.  They are hating their current trading situation.  Cash is brutally tight, morale is low, forecasts are gloomy.  They have just made some redundancies.

And that’s a common week.  Such wild differences in mood one meeting to the next.

The hard and fast facts are that vacancy numbers tumbled over the past 4 years from an all time high of 1.3 million to about 700,000… then in Dec/Jan they hit a baseline and bounced. Back to the 15 year average of about 720,000.  Back to ‘normal’ (whatever the dickens that is!)

Salaries have been subject to upward pressure – there was such fierce post covid demand, minimum wage increases have nudged the baseline higher AND because cost of living inflation has incentivised employees to ask for more dollar.

This also seemed to calm down in Q4 2025 making it easier for employers to replace leavers using the same budget that they used last time.

So in Jan the feeling was “we’re back to some degree of BAU”

But the oil and Iran sketch now adds more uncertainty.  And Trumps trumps do have an impact at individual level.  Job seekers and hiring managers get more jumpy when these things are in the headlines.  Recruitment processes are slower, sometimes jobs get paused… and that might be what we see in April and May.

There’s caution but I would say in the main I has an optimistic slant currently.

And this was genuinely what happened 2009 / 2010:

Bravery tended to pay off – for both candidates that explored the market and businesses that hired talent.  And I think the AI impact might mean that the front foot boxers (the businesses that bring in high talent into their finance teams) really get ahead of their peers in the next 1-3 years.

There will also be some mega roles out there this year.  In Q1 I’ve placed FDs into PE backed businesses that will give full cycle exposure – potentially life (and wealth) changing experiences.

I’ve also placed FBPs into roles that saw them achieve 25%+ pay increases.  I’ve also worked on roles that have outstanding hybrid models or part time working arrangements again in Q1 (lots of them seemed to disappear in 2025).

There is undoubtedly opportunity for businesses that choose to invest and people that take a look at the market.

As always it’s just about investing in the right person / the right business.

Happy April. Hope Q2 brings you a bag of success. If your finance team needs qualified / leadership talent then drop me a line for a confidential discussion.

Thanks as always for reading.