Banks and healthcare firms are outbidding tech companies for software engineers

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Randstad research finds banks pay software engineers a median 13% premium and healthcare firms up to 17% more

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Randstad reported in its 2026 tech talent research that banks pay software engineers a median 13% premium over tech companies, while healthcare and life sciences firms pay up to 17% more.

Non-tech companies are outbidding tech firms for software talent while listings that call for AI skills have multiplied more than fivefold in the last 12 months, Randstad said. Among the non-tech organizations it surveyed, 55% are hiring staff in the wake of job cuts at technology companies.

In the U.S., 70% of non-tech organizations are absorbing talent from the tech sector, 15 percentage points above the global benchmark, according to a Randstad US release. Randstad said banking and financial services and healthcare are attracting up to three times more tech professionals into digital roles than pure-play IT firms gain in return.

Hiring demand is growing overall. Randstad said 86% of organizations globally are increasing their tech headcount, and 93% of U.S. organizations are doing so.

Randstad CEO Sander van 't Noordende told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday that the non-tech employers see a payoff in AI. "These businesses see massive potential in AI, realizing business cases that they were not able to realize before," he said. Van 't Noordende said the money that once poured into the tech industry is now moving to companies that want to capture gains from AI.

Michael Morris, global head of platform and talent at Randstad Digital, said in a statement that the challenge for U.S. employers is finding people who can turn AI investment into business results, particularly in system architecture and AI orchestration.

The research draws on responses from 1,100 senior business and technology leaders in 11 markets, gathered in the first half of August 2026, along with an analysis of more than 20 million job ads and the profiles of about 100 million candidates, Randstad said.

Tech companies have been cutting software roles. Oracle $ORCL's September layoffs fell hardest on software developers, engineers and managers in its cloud infrastructure division. The company shed roughly 21,000 positions, about 13% of its workforce, over the fiscal year ended May 31, 2026.

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