Company
Staffing and recruitment firm that publishes salary guides and demand rankings for technology and finance roles.
Robert Half's 2027 Salary Guide projects financial analyst starting pay up 3.8%, about double the 1.8% average for finance and accounting. For CFOs the gap is a per-seat hiring cost that one category-wide budget will not cover, and existing analysts can see it.
Reality
Bank of America Institute data show job-switchers' pay growth fell from nearly 18% in 2022 to 8% in early 2026, against 5% for stayers. Employers saved mostly on hiring offers, and a September update shows that premium climbing again.
Reality
Robert Half says 72% of managers plan to pay more for recruits with AI skills in 2027. Its raise table and LinkedIn's posting data put that premium anywhere from about two points of salary to $97,000 a year, so whichever source a budget uses sets the line item.
Reality
Robert Half says 47% of UK employers plan to grow tech teams by year-end, led by demand for cyber security and agentic AI skills. Official figures show thin supply, so leaders will have to split that demand between scarce hires and staff retrained to check AI output.
Reality
AI skills appear in 2.5% of US job postings, roughly a million of them, and the two most-cited estimates of what they add to pay within the same occupation differ by more than two to one, with only one of them expressed in dollars.
Reality