UK & Ireland headcount growth rebounds as AI roles rise

UK headcount growth rose to 7.2% in the first half of 2026, up from 2.7% in 2025, according to Personio's latest workforce index.

Ireland showed a similar pattern, with headcount growth increasing from 5.5% in 2025 to 9.8% in the first half of 2026. The rebound in the UK and Ireland was part of a broader recovery across much of Europe, based on aggregated data from more than 16,000 organisations using Personio's HR and payroll software.

Among the markets tracked, Switzerland recorded the sharpest change. Its headcount growth rate more than doubled between 2025 and the first half of 2026, putting it ahead of the other countries in the index.

Spain also posted stronger figures, with headcount growth rising from 9.9% to 11.8% over the same period. The results point to renewed hiring momentum in several European markets after several years of steady decline, as Personio described it.

Germany was the outlier. It was the only market in the index to show an uninterrupted year-on-year decline in headcount growth every year since 2022, with the rate edging down from 7.4% in 2025 to 7.2% in the first half of 2026.

Hiring trends

The report also examined recruitment patterns for workers at the start of their careers. Job postings for junior, entry-level and student roles rose from 12.4% in the second quarter of 2026 to 14.1% in the third quarter.

That quarterly increase did not fully reverse the longer-term slowdown. Over the past 12 months, the average share of junior postings was 13.5%, below the 15.9% recorded over the same period a year earlier.

The figures suggest employers may be reopening some entry routes while remaining cautious about sustained investment in early-career recruitment. A weaker share of junior roles over a full-year period can affect younger workers trying to enter the labour market, particularly in sectors where employers have focused on more experienced hires.

AI roles

Personio also tracked changes in job titles and role descriptions that refer to artificial intelligence. The number of role and title changes referencing AI had climbed to 6.3 times its second-quarter 2024 baseline by the second quarter of 2026.

Early data for the third quarter of 2026 indicated that the pace of increase may be slowing. Even so, the underlying shift in how organisations define jobs remained significant.

The findings add to wider evidence that businesses are not only adding AI-related roles but also revising existing positions to reflect changing tasks, workflows and reporting lines. That can affect hiring plans, training needs and pay structures as employers decide whether to redesign current jobs or create new ones.

Personio said its index is based on aggregated and anonymised information from more than 16,000 European organisations. Each metric reflects active organisations relevant to the measure, with filtering to remove outliers and low-quality data.

Founded in Munich in 2015, the company says its software is used by more than 16,000 companies employing 1.6 million people. It has six offices in Europe and more than 1,500 employees.

Jonas Rieke, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Personio, commented on the changes in how businesses are defining work.

"AI transformation isn't a future scenario anymore. It's already running inside most organisations, whether they planned for it or not. We see it directly in the roles being advertised today," said Jonas Rieke, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Personio.

"Job titles and role descriptions are shifting fast. That's a real operational challenge. It also means getting this right matters more than ever, and it puts HR in a position it hasn't been in before: the function has to work out what a role actually is now before anyone can hire for it, train for it, or pay for it fairly. In doing so, HR ends up shaping how this AI transformation actually plays out," Rieke said.