On Oct. 29, Randstad released new tech talent research showing that the contest for software and AI talent has moved well beyond technology companies. In the U.S., 93% of organizations are increasing their overall tech headcount, and 70% of non-tech organizations are actively absorbing talent from the tech sector, 15 percentage points above the global benchmark.

CNBC reported that, according to the research, healthcare and life sciences firms are paying up to 17% more than tech companies for software engineers, and banks are offering 13% more. "We've seen a massive investment wave in the technology sector ... now that wave is shifting towards businesses looking to find the benefits of AI," Randstad CEO Sander van 't Noordende told the network.

Why now: if your organization is a bank, insurer, health system, manufacturer, or public agency, you now compete for the same engineers as the companies that used to set the market. Many enterprise teams are opening next year's technical requisitions this quarter, and the process behind them decides who signs.

What Randstad found

The research surveyed 1,100 senior business and technology decision-makers across 11 markets and drew on more than 20 million job postings. For U.S. employers:

  • Skills over degrees. 54% of tech decision-makers now prioritize specialized micro-credentials and vendor certifications over traditional university degrees. Only 35% keep a four-year computer science degree as a non-negotiable requirement.
  • Hard-to-find skills. System architecture and AI orchestration is the hardest capability to recruit (41%). And 69% of executives say candidates with strong communication and stakeholder management skills are harder to find than pure coders.
  • More applications, less signal. 42% of employers report a surge in job applications, attributed to AI-generated resumes, and 31% now bypass public job boards altogether in favor of curated networks and talent partners.
Bar chart: how U.S. employers are hiring tech talent: How U.S. employers are hiring tech talent (Randstad, 2026)
Source: Randstad, Oct. 29, 2026. Chart by Pereless.

Five changes for enterprise recruiting teams

Paying more gets a candidate's attention. It does not get them through a slow or unclear process. Here is where to focus.

1. Write requisitions around demonstrated skills

If most tech leaders now value certifications over degrees, a requisition with a degree as a hard filter may screen out the people you want. Public employers are moving the same way: the U.S. Office of Personnel Management's Government-Wide Recruitment Strategic Plan for fiscal years 2026 to 2028 sets a goal that all federal job announcements use skills-based qualifications and drop unnecessary degree requirements.

2. Know which sources actually produce hires

When volume rises and signal falls, count how many applicants from each channel reach an offer, not how many apply. Track source of hire and funnel conversion by role family. OPM's plan makes source-of-hire tracking and standard metrics such as applicant flow and conversion rates part of how agencies report recruiting results.

3. Treat time to fill as a competitive number

A candidate weighing a 17% premium from a health system against an offer from your organization will not wait three weeks for a panel interview. OPM's plan sets a target to reduce average federal time to hire from 101 days to 80. Private employers competing for the same engineers should know their own number by role and stage.

4. Keep candidates informed at every stage

The OPM plan calls for consistent, timely, and transparent communication with applicants at key stages to build trust and reduce applicant attrition. The same holds in any sector. Silence after a technical interview is when strong candidates accept other offers.

5. Show the work on your career site

Engineers moving into banks or health systems want to know what they will build and which systems they will use. Describe the actual technical work.

A hypothetical example

Imagine a hypothetical regional health system that needs six platform engineers next quarter. Its talent acquisition team drops the degree filter and lists the certifications and systems the role uses. Source data shows referrals and its career site produce most technical hires, so it shifts spend there. It targets ten business days from first interview to decision and sends a status update after each stage. This scenario is illustrative only, not a real organization or a reported result.

Where Pereless fits

Pereless Systems is an enterprise applicant tracking system built for teams that hire at scale, in the private sector and in public agencies. It does not set pay or assess skills. It gives recruiting teams the structure and data to run a faster, clearer process. Based on the Pereless platform features:

  • Analytics built for executive review. Dashboards cover time to fill, source performance, funnel conversion, and recruiter workload, with scheduled PDF or CSV exports.
  • Requisitions built once. Requisition templates and distribution to major job boards and your own career site from a single screen.
  • Interview scheduling that keeps pace. Candidates self-book from real Outlook or Google Calendar availability, panel interviews coordinate multiple calendars, rooms, and video links, and reminders follow automatically.
  • Two-way text recruiting. SMS from the pipeline with templates for interview confirmations, with every message kept on the candidate record.
  • Career pages with structured job data. Branded, mobile-first career sites with search, alerts, and one-page apply.
  • Connected to your systems. Integrations with background screening, video interviewing, HRIS, and payroll, plus a documented REST API, webhooks, and SAML single sign-on.

FAQ

What did Randstad's Oct. 29, 2026 research find? That 93% of U.S. organizations are increasing tech headcount and 70% of U.S. non-tech organizations are absorbing talent from the tech sector.

How much more are non-tech employers paying for software engineers? According to CNBC's report on the research, healthcare and life sciences firms pay up to 17% more than tech companies, and banks offer 13% more.

Are employers still requiring computer science degrees? Fewer are. 54% of U.S. tech decision-makers prioritize micro-credentials and vendor certifications over degrees, and 35% keep a four-year computer science degree as non-negotiable.

Why are some employers skipping job boards? Randstad found 42% of U.S. employers report a surge in applications tied to AI-generated resumes, and 31% bypass public job boards for curated networks and talent partners.

The premium gets a candidate to read your offer. Your process decides whether they sign it.

Compete for technical talent with a faster, clearer process

See how Pereless gives enterprise recruiting teams time-to-fill, source, and funnel reporting, plus scheduling and career pages, in one system.

Talk with the Pereless team about competing for technical talent

Sources

  1. Randstad, "AI adoption accelerates talent demand with 93% of U.S. employers growing tech workforce," Atlanta, Oct. 29, 2026. https://www.randstadusa.com/about/press-room/press-releases/ai-adoption-employers-grow-tech-workforce/ (primary)
  2. CNBC, "Banks and healthcare firms are outbidding tech for software talent, major recruiter says," Sawdah Bhaimiya, Oct. 29, 2026. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/29/ai-jobs-software-engineers-tech-layoffs.html
  3. U.S. Office of Personnel Management, "Government-Wide Recruitment Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2026-2028," October 2026. https://www.opm.gov/chcoc/latest-memos/fy-2026-28-government-wide-recruitment-strategic-plan.pdf (primary)
  4. Pereless Systems, Features. https://power.pereless.com/features