May 2026
May was an interesting month for the Market Research sector - the continued reinvention and development is creating new and exciting opportunities.
This is what we saw across market research, data, and analytics in May.
📊 Supply & Demand
Demand is solid but selective. The UK market is tracking over 1,700 active data and analytics vacancies, with sales, ops, and data engineering leading volume. In market research specifically, the gap is at the mid-senior level — Research Managers and Senior Insight Managers who can translate findings into commercial decisions, not just produce them. Entry level is becoming an issue - we need to see these hires as investment for the future. If we dont make space for entry level then we will have big gaps in the future.
💷 Salary Movement
Mean salaries for data roles have risen ~6% year-on-year, now averaging above £50k. In research agencies, the pressure is more acute at the top - now that many firms have completed their restructures there is limited bandwidth. Heads of Insight and Research Directors are increasingly being counter-offered when they hand in their notice, pushing effective market rates upward even when advertised salaries haven't moved.
🏢 The challenge
For our agency clients the demand is for people who can deliver more strategic, decision-ready output — less reporting, more 'so what'. That's creating internal restructures, with agencies cutting junior fieldwork roles and competing hard for the senior talent who can lead client conversations. Redundancies from 2024–25 agency consolidation have released some good people into the market, but many have now been snapped up quickly. Ability to lead strategic client conversations is paramount.
🚧 Biggest Hiring Challenge Right Now
Nearly half of all data & analytics job postings now reference AI expectations — the highest of any sector. Research agencies are struggling to define what that actually means in practice, which makes writing compelling JDs hard and puts off strong candidates who want clarity.
✅ How can you hire well.
Compress your process. The clients winning the best hires right now are moving from first interview to offer in under two weeks. With counter-offers increasingly common, a slow third round is often a lost hire. If your process has three stages, ask whether two would do the job.
In May we completed 5 searches all in under 30 days.
Our searches are contained, compact and consistent.
If you want to find out more please get in touch with Sinead Hasson or Catherine Vaughan
#mrx #marketresearch #hiring #recruitment