SignalHire, a B2B contact intelligence platform, analyzed tens of thousands of recruiter searches between January and April 2025 and the same period in 2026, revealing dramatic shifts in hiring demand. The data highlights a current crisis in physical therapy recruitment and a fundamental change in how companies search for technical talent.
According to the analysis, searches for Physical Therapist grew by 1,473% year over year, while Physical Therapist Assistant searches surged 5,717%. This spike contradicts official forecasts that often describe the physical therapy shortage as a future problem. Recruiters are actively sourcing candidates now, indicating that the shortage is already acute. Hiring managers are not waiting for projections to materialize; they are sourcing ahead because the candidates they need take time to find, approach, and convert. The competition for physical therapy talent in 2026 is significantly more intense than any published forecast currently reflects. By the time official data confirms the shortage, recruiters who started sourcing early may have already filled their pipelines.
In contrast, searches for Software Engineer fell 68% globally year over year, with a 75% decline in the UK. This does not mean companies are hiring fewer technical people; rather, the broad title has become less useful as a search term. Instead, recruiters are searching for specific technical expertise. For example, Java Developer searches rose 3,257% in the UK, and QA and Software Test Engineer searches increased 567%. This shift reflects that AI tools have absorbed many tasks previously covered by generalist software engineer roles, prompting hiring managers to seek specialized skills.
For talent acquisition teams, the window between now and when these trends become widely visible in public data is critical. The market is sorting, and the data shows where it is going. The question is whether sourcing operations are positioned to move with it. SignalHire's platform provides access to over 850 million verified professional profiles with real-time email and phone verification, serving sales, recruiting, and marketing teams globally through its database, browser extension, API, and Data Enrichment workflows.
