Your control room engineer hands in notice. The next CCGT outage starts in six weeks. You’ve advertised the role twice, and you’re down to one viable candidate.

This is the moment to move fast.

The UK labour market is easing, which means more people are looking. But the specialist skills you need haven’t suddenly become easier to find. The window is there.

The latest Office for National Statistics figures, released on 17 February 2026, show unemployment at 5.2% for October to December 2025. Vacancies have dropped by 69,000 (8.6%) year on year, and there are now 2.5 unemployed people for every open role, compared to 1.9 a year ago.

For energy employers, that’s not bad news. It’s a clearer hiring window, if you know how to use it.

What “Cooling Down” Actually Means for the UK Labour Market

When the labour market cools, it doesn’t mean talent floods back overnight. It means the balance shifts in your favour, if you move with clarity and speed.

Fewer vacancies overall.

More applicants per role.

Slower decision making from other employers, which creates opportunity for the ones who act decisively. Wage growth slowing in some sectors, but not in roles where specialist skills are still in demand.

For most of the economy, the pressure is easing.

For energy employers, the opportunity is now. The macro trend is loosening.

Your job is to hire better while others hesitate.

Industries Bucking the Wider UK Labour Market Trend

Not every sector is seeing vacancies fall.

Transport and storage added 4,000 roles on the quarter, one of the few bright spots in the data. Arts, entertainment and recreation grew by 31.7%, though from a smaller base.

These industries matter to energy supply chains.

Transport and logistics move turbines, transformers, and spares. Fabrication and storage support renewables delivery. If those sectors are hiring, it’s because activity is holding up.

That’s relevant when you’re planning grid connections, battery storage rollouts, or offshore wind logistics.

Meanwhile, the electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply sector saw vacancies fall by 30.0% year on year. That’s one of the steepest declines in the data. But it doesn’t mean demand for energy skills has collapsed.

It means employers are being more selective, or holding roles open longer because they can’t find the right match.

What It Means for Astute’s Sectors

Power Generation

EfW, CCGT, OCGT, CHP, biomass. These assets don’t stop. Outages are planned months ahead.

If you can’t fill a senior technician or shift engineer role in time, you delay the outage or pay contractor premiums.

Key implications:

Outage season planning needs to start earlier, not later. If you’re scheduling maintenance for Q2, lock down resource now.
Contractor pools are finite. If you’re relying on the same names everyone else uses, expect day rates to hold or rise, regardless of the wider market.
Multi skilled candidates will choose the best offer, not the quickest one. Speed still matters, but package clarity matters more.

What to do now: Confirm your outage schedules with operations, then speak to your recruiter before you brief the role. Build a shortlist in advance, not after the PO is signed.

Renewables

Grid connections, battery storage, offshore wind delivery, EPC rollouts. The pipeline is there.

The skills to deliver it aren’t evenly distributed.

Key implications:

Project delays are expensive, and hiring delays cause project delays. If your commissioning engineer or SCADA specialist isn’t in post when you need them, your programme slips.
Renewables employers are competing with nuclear, with power gen, and with international projects. The talent pool is shared, and it’s not growing fast enough.
Wage expectations in grid and storage roles are sticky. The wider labour market cooling has not reached senior electrical or HV commissioning disciplines.

What to do now: Map your Q2 and Q3 project milestones. Identify the roles that unlock delivery. Hire ahead of need, or accept the risk of delays.

Nuclear

Decommissioning, new build, engineering, supply chain. Regulatory, technical, and security clearances mean you can’t just hire fast. You have to hire right.

Key implications:

Security clearance timelines haven’t shortened. If a role requires SC or DV, add months to your hiring plan, not weeks.
New build programmes are ramping, which means more employers chasing the same senior engineering, QA, and project controls talent.
Decommissioning remains steady, and those environments require specific experience. Transferable skills help, but site knowledge and clearances still matter most.

What to do now: Review your clearance pipeline. If you have roles coming up that need vetting, start the process now. For critical hires, consider internal moves or secondments while clearances complete.

What Smart Employers Will Do Next

The market’s loosening, which means you can hire better if you act decisively.

Here’s what to do:

Tighten your must haves vs nice to haves. If the skill can be trained in 90 days, make it a trainable.
Speed up your interview process. Two stage max. If a candidate is strong, make the offer before someone else does.
Lock down salary bands before you advertise. If you’re waiting for finance sign off mid process, you’ll lose candidates.
Keep warm relationships with contractors. If an outage lands and you need cover fast, you’ll be calling the same people. Stay visible.
Build talent pools for peak seasons. Outage windows, commissioning phases, and summer grid work are predictable. Recruit before the rush.
Brief your recruiter properly. Share the project context, the team structure, and the real challenges of the role. Good briefs get better CVs.
Make decisions faster than your competitors. If you take three weeks to feedback, assume the candidate has moved on.

Where the Market’s Headed

The labour market is loosening. Specialist energy skills are still in demand.

Unemployment is up, vacancies are down, and there are more applicants per role than there were 12 months ago. For energy employers, that’s a window to hire stronger candidates, faster, if you move with clarity and confidence. The talent you need is still selective, but there’s more choice in the market than there was six months ago.

If you’re planning hires for Q2 or beyond, now is the time to act. The employers who move decisively will build stronger teams. The ones who wait will miss the window.

Speak to Astute about your hiring plans for 2026.

We work across power gen, renewables, nuclear, and energy supply chains, and we know where the talent is.