People & Transformation Trends

Published Reports

Tech Hiring 2026: AI Roles Up 134%, Generalist Postings Down 34%

Tech hiring has fractured in two. AI-related postings are 134% above pre-pandemic levels while general tech sits 34% below. And 38.5% of candidates are now cheating on technical assessments. Two questions every recruiter is asking, answered with data.

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Published Report

European Luxury DTC Leadership Market

DTC revenue share across 11 luxury and premium groups from their own annual reports (Kering, Prada, Burberry, Richemont, Moncler, Tapestry, Pandora, Ferragamo, Hugo Boss, Brunello Cucinelli, LVMH) — plus salary benchmarks and talent-market observations.

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Trend Intelligence

Pay Transparency

EU Pay Transparency Directive must be transposed into national law by 7 June 2026

Directive (EU) 2023/970 requires employers to disclose pay ranges in job postings, give workers the right to information on pay levels, and (for companies with 100+ employees) publish gender pay-gap reports from 2027 onwards. Member States must transpose by 7 June 2026. Source: European Commission — Pay transparency

AI in HR

EU AI Act classifies AI systems used in recruitment and HR decisions as high-risk

Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 — Annex III lists employment-related AI systems (candidate screening, performance evaluation, task allocation, monitoring) as high-risk. High-risk obligations apply from 2 August 2026. HR functions deploying AI need documentation, human oversight and bias testing by that date. Source: European Commission — AI Act

Luxury Leadership

Luxury DTC revenue share has moved faster than the leadership layer that runs it

Across 11 publicly listed luxury and premium groups, DTC revenue share ranges from 67% (Brunello Cucinelli) to 100% (LV/Dior), with the average above 80% — figures sourced directly from each group's 2024 or FY25 annual results. The leadership-market implications are analysed in the European Luxury DTC Leadership Market report. Source: TrendsOnFire report

Labour Market

EU labour and skills shortages persist across most Member States

Cedefop's latest European Skills and Jobs Survey shows structural skill shortages in ICT, engineering, health and green-transition roles across the EU27. Bottleneck occupations affect employers in the majority of Member States. Sources: Cedefop, Eurofound

Sleep & Productivity

Sleep deprivation carries measurable GDP cost across major economies

RAND Europe (2016) — "Why Sleep Matters" estimates that insufficient sleep costs the US up to $411B per year (2.28% of GDP) and Japan up to $138B (2.92% of GDP). Similar order-of-magnitude losses are found in the UK, Canada and Germany. Sources: RAND report, RAND press release

Workforce Reporting

CSRD expands mandatory workforce-data reporting for thousands of EU companies

Under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EU) 2022/2464, large EU companies must disclose own-workforce metrics (gender pay gap, turnover, training hours, collective bargaining coverage) under ESRS S1 from FY2024/2025 reports. Source: European Commission — CSRD

People & Transformation Intelligence

Published Reports

Trend Intelligence