VacancySoft Insights

HR vacancies are on track to increase by up to 50% this year compared to 2024, with employee relations now the second largest area being recruited for, according to data from Vacancysoft

With the new legislation governing employment passing parliament and set to come into law by the end of the year, will HR departments need to permanently expand as a result? And what will the impact of the new regulations be on how companies hire?

 

With Telent Technology Services Ltd supporting Openreach’s mission to deliver fibre infrastructure to 20 million UK premises by the mid-to-late 2020s, it’s no surprise the company remained the top hirer in Engineering Telecoms roles last year, even as most others froze hiring. The biggest surge came from Nippon Telegraph and Telephone, where vacancies more than doubled.

With companies like NTT expanding their UK presence and demand for advanced telecom solutions continuing to grow, which company do you think will make the biggest leap in 2025?

IT Infrastructure vacancies in Telecoms rose significantly in Q1, hitting levels not seen since the first half of last year, both in London and across the rest of the country.

London has increased its share of infrastructure vacancies also. Over the period 8% of the roles were in the capital, whilst in Q1, this had risen to 9.8%. This then begs the question, why has there been a greater focus in London so far this year?

With County Broadband’s plans to extend full-fibre networks to 500,000 premises across the East of England by 2027, recruitment for Telecoms Engineering roles in the region has surged so far this year.

As a result, it is the fastest growing part of the country in terms of telecoms engineering vacancies this year, making up 17.9% of the national total in 2025 so far, compared to 5.5% in 2024.

With that, if you would like to know more about the activity we are seeing in the market, get in touch.

Business Development roles in Telecoms have surged in 2025, with nearly 93% more vacancies than the rest of the Sales division combined. Meanwhile, other Sales roles have declined but appear to be recovering this month.

With major players like BT, Vodafone, and Virgin Media O2 competing for market share and rapidly expanding 5G infrastructure to meet growing demand, could this be fueling a greater need for BD professionals?

Data from Vacancysoft shows the demand for Electrical Engineers in larger firms across Southern England surged in 2024, hitting levels last seen in the peak post pandemic period in 2022.

However, since then, activity has tailed off. Equally with the 5G installation roadmap now taking shape and Huawei targeted to be fully removed by 2027, could demand for Electrical Engineers even surpass 2022 activity levels?

N.B. Data visualised is based on electrical engineering vacancies published on large company websites.

 

Permanent vacancies for field services telecoms engineers increased by 31% in 2024 as Vodafone and EE both completed their 3G network switch-off. The uplift was slightly faster in London than the rest of the country, up by 39% compared to 27% in the rest of the country.

Anyway, with Virgin Media O2 now looking to begin their switch off in 2025, and all the networks looking to maximise their 5G coverage, what will this mean for demand for Field Services telecoms engineers this year? Will London continue to see demand grow the fastest, or will another region see demand for field services engineers surge this year?

Let us know your thoughts below!

Telecoms Engineering vacancies rose last year as demand for IT fell. As 3G becomes discontinued, the move to 4G/5G accelerates, what will this mean for the sector in 2025? Thoughts welcome!