Hiring in 2026: 70 Days to Fill a Role, 11.6% Never Filled

Labour markets in Europe and the US have steadied, and employers hold more negotiating power than two years ago. Yet two large studies published in 2026 show that specialist technology roles remain hard to fill — and that speed has become the deciding factor in who gets the best candidates.

McKinsey's HR Monitor 2026 surveyed about 1,300 HR professionals and 5,500 employees in January 2026 across Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the UK, with comparison data from the US and China. Mercer's Global Talent Trends 2026 draws on roughly 12,000 executives, HR leaders, investors and employees.

HR professionals report being unable to fill 11.6% of vacancies, up slightly from 11% in 2025. The gap is widest in electronics (13.7%) and in technology, media and telecommunications (13.3%), reflecting continued scarcity of specialised digital and engineering skills.

Applications per posting vary widely with local unemployment — from about 165 per role in Spain to ten in the Netherlands, against a 30-application average. For specialist roles, volume rarely solves the problem: many applicants, few who fit.

The median time to hire, from approval of a position to an accepted offer, is 70 days; the mean is more than 90. Top-quartile organisations complete the same process in 49 days. McKinsey finds that organisations with longer hiring cycles report lower offer acceptance, as strong candidates run several processes in parallel and accept the first good offer.

Outcomes improved modestly. Offer acceptance rose to 59% (from 56%), and the hiring success rate — acceptances net of probation-period terminations — rose to 50% (from 46%). Country differences are large: France leads with 71% acceptance and 64% hiring success; Poland is lowest with 46% and 37%.

About a third of positions are filled internally. Of the two-thirds filled externally, 43 percentage points come from companies' own recruiting and 23 from external providers such as headhunters, agencies and staffing firms.

Pay and benefits are the top driver of job changes, named by 47% of employees. Work–life balance and flexibility remain in the top five everywhere. The notable shift is job security, which rose to third place (36%) after being the least important driver in 2025 — a sign of a more risk-aware workforce. The importance of training and development as an attraction factor fell by 12 percentage points.

Voluntary attrition is down two points year on year. Employees stay mainly for compensation (52%), work–life balance (46%) and job security (45%).

Mercer's data adds a warning. Employee thriving — people who report flourishing at work — fell from 66% in 2024 to 44% in 2026. 35% of employees would consider leaving if they felt disadvantaged by unequal access to AI tools or training.

Executives see the same constraint from the other side:

Only 11% of organisations practise strategic workforce planning — forecasting needs three or more years ahead; nearly two-thirds plan no more than twelve months out. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that up to 30% of current work hours in Europe and the US could be automated by 2030, while more than 70% of today's skills remain relevant. Short horizons make it hard to prepare for that kind of shift.

McKinsey estimates that core recruiting steps such as screening, assessment and interview support have automation potential of at least 60%. In the EU, however, AI systems used in recruitment and personnel decisions are classified as high-risk under the AI Act, with requirements for risk management, documentation, transparency and meaningful human oversight, on top of GDPR. The report recommends human-in-the-loop design, bias testing and strong data governance.