SignalHire, a B2B contact intelligence platform, has released its Global Jobs Report based on an analysis of tens of thousands of recruiter searches conducted between January and April 2025 and the same period in 2026. The findings reveal significant shifts in talent acquisition, with physical therapy searches experiencing explosive growth and software engineer searches declining sharply.
Recruiter searches for Physical Therapist grew by 1,473% year over year, while Physical Therapist Assistant searches surged by 5,717%. According to SignalHire, this indicates that the physical therapy shortage is already a crisis, not just a projection. Hiring managers are sourcing ahead of official forecasts because candidates take time to find and convert. The competition for physical therapy talent in 2026 is significantly more intense than published data currently reflects.
Conversely, searches for Software Engineer fell 68% globally year over year, with the UK seeing a 75% decline. However, this does not mean technical hiring is down. Instead, recruiters are using more specific titles: Java Developer searches rose 3,257% in the UK, and QA and Software Test Engineer searches increased by 567%. SignalHire attributes this to AI tools absorbing many tasks previously covered by generalist software engineers.
The report also highlights that 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. 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. More information can be found at SignalHire.
