UK Hiring Momentum Builds as Professional Job Vacancies Surge in May

There’s some encouraging news for job seekers and businesses alike, with the UK professional jobs market showing fresh signs of strength as hiring activity continued to rise throughout May.

New data from recruitment and business consulting firm Robert Half reveals that professional job postings climbed by 7% month-on-month, exceeding 56,400 vacancies across the UK. 

Even more encouragingly, this marks the second consecutive month of growth, pushing hiring levels back towards the highs seen at the start of 2026.

The latest figures suggest that employers are once again investing in highly skilled talent, particularly in finance, accounting and technology roles that are crucial to business growth and long-term success.

Finance teams are seeing particularly strong demand. Credit Controller vacancies increased by 19% in May, while Finance Director roles rose by 20%. These gains indicate that organisations are placing greater emphasis on financial control, strategic planning and business performance as they navigate an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The sectors driving this growth are equally interesting. Finance and accounting vacancies within business services jumped by 24%, while manufacturing businesses increased hiring by an impressive 26%. Roles such as Accounts Assistant, Finance Manager and Tax Manager continue to be among the most sought-after positions across the country.

Technology recruitment is also gaining pace as organisations continue to invest in digital transformation projects. IT vacancies rose by 12% month-on-month, reaching around 1,100 advertised positions.

Some of the strongest growth has been seen in senior and specialist roles. Demand for Senior Business Analysts surged by 57%, while Lead Engineer vacancies increased by 36%. These figures suggest that businesses are not simply maintaining existing systems but actively pursuing complex projects, innovation initiatives and technology-led growth strategies.

Geographically, London remains the UK's largest professional hiring market, recording more than 10,600 vacancies during May. However, the capital isn't the only city enjoying renewed confidence.

Manchester also posted a healthy 5% increase in professional job opportunities compared with April, reinforcing its reputation as one of the UK's fastest-growing business and technology hubs.

For employers, the data highlights the importance of attracting and retaining skilled professionals in an increasingly competitive market. For job seekers, it signals growing opportunities across a range of industries, particularly for those with specialist finance or technology expertise.

After a period of uncertainty, the latest figures suggest that confidence is returning to the UK's professional jobs market, and that's welcome news for businesses and workers alike.

Is Your Brand the One Customers Think Of When They're Ready to Buy?

For many businesses, brand awareness has long been the holy grail of marketing. The logic seems simple: if people know your brand exists, they'll buy from you when the time comes.

But what if that's only part of the story?

A growing body of research suggests that being known isn't enough. The brands that win are often the ones that come to mind at the exact moment a customer is ready to make a purchase.

That's where the concept of Mental Availability comes in.

Developed through research by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, Mental Availability focuses on whether buyers think of a brand in relevant buying situations. 

Consumers rarely evaluate every brand they know. Instead, they typically consider a small shortlist of brands that immediately spring to mind when a need arises.

If your business isn't on that shortlist, you're unlikely to make the sale.

Recognising this challenge, consultancy SmilingCFO has launched a new online diagnostic tool designed to help marketing leaders assess whether their brand is positioned to be remembered when it matters most.

The Mental Availability Review takes less than five minutes to complete and provides a personalised report highlighting potential strengths, weaknesses and opportunities. The assessment focuses on three critical areas: Mapping, Activation and Measurement.

At the heart of Mental Availability are what marketers call Category Entry Points, the situations, triggers and needs that prompt customers to begin thinking about a purchase. Successful brands create strong mental links to these moments, increasing the likelihood they'll be considered when buying decisions are made.

According to SmilingCFO founder Martin Coyle, many businesses are still relying too heavily on traditional awareness metrics.

"Most brands are still judged heavily on awareness, but awareness alone doesn't mean someone will choose you," he explained to That's Business.

"The real question is whether people think of your brand in the situations that influence purchase."

It's a timely message. With marketing budgets under scrutiny and senior leaders demanding clearer evidence of return on investment, businesses are increasingly looking beyond vanity metrics and focusing on what genuinely drives growth.

The Mental Availability Review isn't intended to be a definitive audit. Instead, it acts as a starting point, helping marketing teams identify areas that may deserve closer investigation before committing significant resources to strategy development or market research.

For larger consumer brands especially, understanding whether customers think of you when they're ready to buy could be one of the most important questions your marketing team asks this year.

After all, if your brand doesn't come to mind at the crucial moment, your competitors probably will.

The Mental Availability Review is available at smilingcfo.co.uk alongside resources explaining how Mental Availability influences brand growth.

One-Size-Fits-All Devolution Could Hold Back Local Business Growth, New Report Warns

As England's devolution agenda continues to gather pace, a new report is warning that a "one-size-fits-all" approach could leave many local economies struggling to reach their full potential.

The report, Everything in its right place: establishing strong organisations and practices for successful devolution, published by the independent think tank Localis in partnership with Local Partnerships, argues that ministers should move beyond simply replicating the Greater Manchester metro mayor model across the country.

Instead, it says devolution must reflect the unique economic realities of different regions if local businesses are to benefit from genuine growth opportunities.

For business owners, investors and employers, the findings could have significant implications.

Many areas of England still lack the strategic powers enjoyed by more established combined authorities. According to Localis, continuing to prioritise these mature devolved regions risks widening economic gaps between different parts of the country and leaving key decisions concentrated in Whitehall rather than in local communities.

The report argues that economic growth strategies should be tailored to local circumstances. While some regions are built around a major city, others rely on networks of towns, rural communities and local supply chains. Applying the same governance model everywhere may overlook these differences and limit the ability of local leaders to support business growth effectively.

For local firms, better-targeted devolution could mean improved transport links, more responsive skills programmes, stronger infrastructure planning and investment decisions that reflect local economic needs rather than national priorities.

One of the report's most eye-catching recommendations is a call for greater fiscal devolution. This could eventually include giving strategic authorities more control over locally raised revenues and even exploring options involving income tax or VAT distribution.

Supporters argue that greater financial autonomy would allow local leaders to invest more directly in projects that stimulate business activity, create jobs and attract inward investment.

The report also highlights the importance of clarity as local government reorganisation continues across England. With new unitary councils being created, Localis says responsibilities between councils and strategic authorities must be clearly defined before new structures become entrenched.

For businesses, this matters because uncertainty over who controls planning, transport, economic development and investment decisions can slow progress and create unnecessary barriers.

Localis senior researcher Sandy Forsyth said devolution should provide regions with the flexibility to respond to their own economic circumstances rather than being constrained by top-down structures.

The message for local businesses is clear: successful devolution isn't just about changing governance. It's about ensuring local economies have the tools, powers and resources needed to drive growth on their own terms. If policymakers get that balance right, businesses across England could be among the biggest winners.

https://www.localis.org.uk

London Workers Defy Tube Strikes as Office Attendance Remains Strong

New data reveals 83% of London office workers still attended work during recent Tube strikes, with cycling and flexible commuting helping businesses stay productive.

When London’s latest Underground strikes were announced, many businesses braced themselves for empty offices, disrupted meetings and a major dip in productivity.

But according to new workplace data, Londoners had other ideas.

Research from workplace meals provider Feedr reveals over 83% of office workers still made it into the workplace and ordered lunch as normal during the recent strike week. That's a surprisingly strong attendance rate and a significant improvement on the September 2025 Tube strikes, when office attendance fell to 77%.

The findings suggest that London's workforce is becoming increasingly resilient, adapting quickly to transport disruption rather than simply staying at home.

Feedr's unique data provides a reliable snapshot of office attendance because employees only use its Cloud Canteen meal ordering service when they are physically present in the workplace. In other words, lunch orders offer a real-time picture of who's actually sitting at their desk.

While strike days still caused a noticeable dip, the overall picture was far more positive than many employers expected.

One of the biggest reasons appears to be changing commuting habits.

As Tube services were disrupted, many workers turned to alternative forms of transport, particularly cycling. Data from bike-sharing subscription platform CycleSaver showed a remarkable 200% increase in applications for smaller subscription minute bundles during the April 2026 strike period. The company also reported an 80% increase in new subscriptions compared to the previous month.

The figures highlight a growing trend towards multi-modal commuting, where workers combine cycling, walking, buses and other transport options to avoid relying solely on the Underground.

Katie Fenton, Managing Director of Feedr, believes London has become far better at adapting to disruption. She told That's Business: "We expected Tube strikes to hit much harder than they did," she said. "What the data actually shows is a city that's learned to flex around disruption. The workforce is becoming more adaptable."

CycleSaver founder Dino Bertolis agrees, pointing to shared city bikes as a practical solution for modern commuters. "Shared city bikes are giving Londoners a genuine, flexible alternative to the London Underground," he explained. to us. 

"The more employees have access to schemes like CycleSaver, the less dependent they become on any single mode of transport."

The findings also reveal an important lesson for employers. Companies that invest in workplace perks such as quality catering, subsidised lunches and cycling initiatives appear to be more successful at encouraging employees into the office, even when travel becomes challenging.

As hybrid working continues to evolve, businesses may be discovering that flexibility, convenience and a positive workplace experience are becoming powerful tools for maintaining attendance during unexpected disruptions.

For London's workforce, it seems the days of transport strikes bringing the city to a standstill may be fading into the distance.

Hidden AI agents could become the new gatekeepers of commerce, warns new Fintech 2040 paper

A new Fintech 2040 paper from Professor Roland Frank explores how AI agents are moving from passive assistants to autonomous actors capable of searching, selecting and purchasing products on behalf of consumers, fundamentally reshaping the future of ecommerce and payments.

The paper, Agentic Commerce: China’s Lead, Europe’s Choice, argues that the next battleground in digital commerce will no longer be consumer attention alone, but the hidden "trust and protocol layer" behind AI-driven transactions.

While companies once competed for clicks, rankings and conversions, the rise of agentic commerce shifts competitive advantage toward machine-readability, payment authority, trusted execution and interoperability between AI systems.

China already offers an early glimpse of this future. Ecosystems such as Alibaba's Qwen and ByteDance's Douyin show how AI agents can seamlessly combine commerce, payments, recommendation systems and digital services into highly integrated consumer environments.

Yet consumers are not ready to hand over the keys completely. A recent representative consumer survey conducted by Riverty and Adyen found that while many consumers are open to AI-assisted shopping, 93% want the ability to review or stop AI purchasing decisions at any time. 

Most respondents would only allow AI agents limited spending authority and expect full transparency around how decisions are made.

These findings reinforce one of the paper's central conclusions: the future of agentic commerce will be determined as much by trust as by technology.

For Europe, this creates a strategic choice. Rather than copying highly integrated platform models from China or the US, the paper argues that Europe could build a different model of agentic commerce, one based on interoperability, transparent permissions, trusted payments and consumer accountability.

The paper is part of Riverty's Fintech 2040 series exploring the long-term transformation of financial services, digital commerce and consumer behaviour.

Download the full paper here: https://www.riverty.com/en/business/company/fintech-2040/

The Death of the Department Store: A Retail Warning That Came True

Back in 2016, when home delivery specialist Parcelhero published its report 2030: The Death of the High Street, many people viewed its predictions as overly pessimistic. 

After all, Britain's department stores had been a fixture of town centres for generations.

Fast forward ten years, and the report now looks remarkably accurate.

According to Parcelhero's latest follow-up report, 2030: The High Street Fights Back?, over 83% of the UK's department store space has disappeared since 2016. 

What was once one of Britain's most recognisable retail sectors has been dramatically reshaped by changing consumer habits, online shopping and the lasting impact of the pandemic.

In 2016, there were still 467 large department chain stores operating across the UK. By 2021, that number had fallen to just 79.

The list of casualties reads like a history of British retail. Familiar names such as BHS, Debenhams, Beales, Allders and House of Fraser have either disappeared entirely or been reduced to a fraction of their former size.

Perhaps the most significant loss was Debenhams. Founded in 1778, the retailer survived for more than two centuries before its final stores closed in 2021. Today, the brand survives only online.

Parcelhero's original report highlighted warning signs that were already visible a decade ago. Many department store businesses were struggling financially, while others were carrying significant losses. The report argued that traditional department stores were facing pressure from two directions.

First came the rise of supermarkets expanding into clothing, electronics and homeware. Then came the game-changer: e-commerce.

Online retailers offered consumers convenience, competitive pricing and an almost unlimited range of products without requiring a trip into town. For many department stores, adapting quickly enough proved impossible.

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated trends that were already well underway, pushing some struggling retailers beyond the point of recovery.

There are, however, important lessons for today's businesses. The retailers that have survived have generally embraced digital transformation rather than resisted it. Successful brands have invested in seamless online experiences while using physical stores to complement their digital offering.

The decline of the department store is about far more than retail nostalgia. It serves as a powerful reminder that no business model is immune to disruption.

For companies in every sector, the message is clear: adapt to changing customer behaviour or risk becoming part of business history.

The full Parcelhero reports offer a fascinating insight into one of the most dramatic transformations in modern British retail. https://www.parcelhero.com/en-gb/resources/ebooks/

The Escapade Group Expands North With Farmer Ted’s Adventure Farm Acquisition

The UK attractions industry has seen another major move this spring, with The Escapade Group officially acquiring Farmer Ted’s Adventure Farm in Lancashire as part of its growing national expansion strategy.

Completed on 8 May 2026, the acquisition gives The Escapade Group its seventh attraction and marks the company’s first major move into the North West. For families across the region, Farmer Ted’s is already a household name, known for its mix of outdoor adventure, indoor play, animal encounters and packed calendar of seasonal events.

Located near Ormskirk, the attraction has built a loyal following over more than two decades and is perhaps best known for housing the UK’s only Shaun the Sheep™ attraction. It has also become a major seasonal destination thanks to Farmaggedon, the hugely popular Halloween scare event which attracts over 30,000 visitors every year and has developed a strong reputation within the international scare attraction industry.

For The Escapade Group, the deal represents another confident step forward in a rapidly expanding portfolio that already includes Hobbledown, Hobbledown Heath, Gripped London, Kidspace Croydon, Kidspace Romford and Watermouth Castle in Devon.

Chief Executive Officer Joe Ponte described Farmer Ted’s as a “fantastic attraction” with a passionate team and strong customer loyalty already in place.

He said the focus now would be on building upon the site’s existing strengths while helping the attraction continue to evolve in the years ahead.

Founders Nick de Candole and Richard Farley also highlighted the attraction’s creativity and strong family appeal, describing it as exactly the kind of immersive, escapist experience The Escapade Group looks for when expanding its portfolio.

Importantly for returning visitors, families can expect continuity rather than dramatic change. The existing Farmer Ted’s team will remain in place as part of the transition, helping preserve the character and atmosphere that have made the attraction such a success over the last 23 years.

Farmer Ted’s founders Mark and Diane Edwards said joining The Escapade Group represented an exciting new chapter for the business, praising the company’s understanding of what makes a successful family attraction in today’s competitive leisure market.

The acquisition also highlights the continued strength of the UK’s experiential leisure sector, where operators are increasingly investing in attractions that combine entertainment, immersive experiences and repeat family visits.

As consumer demand for experience-led days out continues to grow, The Escapade Group appears determined to become one of the UK’s biggest names in family entertainment.

https://www.escapadegroup.com/