How’s the job market in early 2026?
That’s one of the questions I’m hearing most often.
Here’s what I’m hearing from candidates.
Many are saying:
- “I’m getting interviews but no offers.”
- “I keep finishing second.”
- “The process just feels harder than it used to.”
Strong candidates with solid experience are finding it takes more interviews and more time to land a role.
Recent TechServe Alliance State of the Industry data reflects what many recruiters (and candidates) are experiencing: more interviews per hire and longer time-to-fill across the technology staffing market. Companies are filling roles, but often after comparing more candidates and moving more deliberately through the process.
Why it feels this way
According to TechServe Alliance’s February 2026 State of the Industry report:
- Job postings in technology, finance, and professional services are down more than 20%
- Hiring rate: 3.3%
- Quit rate: 2.0%
- Layoff rate: 1.1%
Together, these numbers describe a labor market with less movement overall.
Fewer people are leaving jobs, and companies are expanding headcount more cautiously, especially in technology-related roles. When mobility slows, hiring becomes more selective and timelines stretch.
That’s why the job market can feel challenging even for highly qualified candidates.
Early signs of improvement
Industry leaders are describing the outlook as cautious optimism.
Some companies are beginning to reopen budgets and restart projects that were paused in 2024 and 2025. Early-2026 hiring activity appears modestly stronger than last year, though still uneven across industries.
Where hiring is strongest
Demand remains steadier in:
- engineering
- utilities
- healthcare
- life sciences
Large enterprise technology hiring continues to be cautious.
AI and hiring
AI is a frequent topic in hiring conversations, but the impact looks different than many people expect.
Companies aren’t broadly hiring “AI engineers” yet. Instead, they’re hiring people to prepare systems, data, and infrastructure so AI can be used later, work like improving data governance, migrating systems to the cloud, and modernizing legacy applications.
So AI is influencing what work exists, not how many jobs exist, at least for now.
A wrong hire is costly, financially, operationally, and for team morale. When markets feel uncertain, companies naturally become more cautious about hiring decisions.
That often results in more interviews, more comparison, and longer hiring timelines. Markets move in cycles, and there are early signs we may be entering a better phase.