VacancySoft Insights December 2025

Recruitment activity across the UK telecommunications sector softened markedly in November, reflecting a familiar late-year pause rather than a structural deterioration in demand. Overall hiring volumes fell by 9.8% month on month across all job functions, with IT roles experiencing an even steeper contraction. This pullback appears closely linked to prolonged budget uncertainty through the autumn, which encouraged employers to defer decisions until greater clarity emerged. With those uncertainties now easing, confidence is returning, raising expectations of a modest year-end uplift and a firmer footing for early 2026.

The policy environment has played an important role in shaping sentiment. The Government’s decision to scale back elements of the Employment Rights Bill, particularly proposals around day one protections, has been welcomed across the industry. For telecoms employers, the revised framework reduces perceived risk when hiring, especially for junior and early-career engineers. At a time when skills pipelines remain fragile, this adjustment could prove significant in reopening entry-level recruitment that had stalled during much of the year.

Benchmarking activity among the UK’s 50 largest telecoms recruiters highlights how uneven the recovery has been. One of the clearest structural drivers is the rollout of Project Gigabit, which has begun to translate into tangible hiring momentum, particularly across northern England. Autumn 2025 saw a noticeable uptick in engineering demand outside the South East, underlining the regional rebalancing effect of largescale infrastructure programmes. By contrast, the sharp dip in November serves as a reminder of how sensitive hiring remains to fiscal and regulatory signals.

Within professional IT roles, demand continues to be led by IT management positions, spanning transformation, change and large-scale project delivery. These roles remain the single most in-demand category across the telecoms sector, reflecting sustained investment in network modernisation and digital transformation. Alongside this, IT security has emerged as one of the fastest-growing areas of demand, with vacancies expected to be 28% higher than last year.

Rising cyber risk, combined with expanding cloud and edge computing deployments, is widening the industry’s attack surface and intensifying competition for scarce security expertise. Unsurprisingly, this is now feeding through into higher salary expectations.

Engineering demand paints a similarly nuanced picture. Network engineers remain in strong demand, with recruitment activity in 2025 on track to exceed last year’s levels and even surpass those seen in 2023. London continues to account for the largest concentration of these roles, reflecting the capital’s role as a hub for complex network transformation projects. The acceleration of 5G deployment, coupled with Project Gigabit and broader capital investment across the sector, is driving this trend. However, the pace of change is also exacerbating skills shortages, particularly in specialist network disciplines, adding further upward pressure on pay.

Installation engineers stand out as the most sought-after role overall, accounting for more than one-fifth of all engineering vacancies. This dominance is directly linked to the ongoing push for nationwide broadband coverage. As fibre rollout accelerates and deadlines tighten, demand for hands-on installation expertise shows little sign of easing. In contrast to more cyclical IT roles, this segment appears structurally supported by long-term infrastructure commitments rather than short-term market sentiment.

Looking ahead, the outlook for telecoms hiring appears cautiously optimistic. November’s slowdown reflects deferred rather than cancelled demand, while policy adjustments and infrastructure investment provide a supportive backdrop. If confidence continues to improve, the sector is well positioned for a stronger start to the new year, albeit one still constrained by persistent skills shortages and rising wage costs.

Please contact the Telecoms Team
Anya Brown – abrown@fuelrecruitment.co.uk
Richard Giles – rgiles@fuelrecruitment.co.uk
Murray West – mwest@fuelrecruitment.co.uk
Efthymios Antoniadis – efthymios@fuelrecruitment.co.uk

About Fuel Recruitment
Fuel Recruitment is a technical recruitment consultancy with 20+ years
of experience in telecoms. We specialise in placing expert professionals
across engineering, delivery, and digital transformation roles.