Hiring In UK Tech Sector Hits Five Year High

Jobs in the tech sector has surged past pre-pandemic levels, according to data compiled by job search engine Adzuna and Dealroom for the Government’s Digital Economy Council.

It found that 132,000 tech positions had been recorded in one week in May. Indeed vacant positions are now running at their highest level since 2016, having recovered sharply from a low of 43,490 in June 2020 – a time when the Coronavirus pandemic was ravaging the global economy.

Indeed, the Covid-19 pandemic forced many people to work remotely from home as offices and factories were closed down. The data from Adzuna and Dealroom reveals that one in four tech jobs are now considered ‘remote’.

Tech jobs

The data also shows that since February 2021, there have been over 100,000 tech job vacancies per week in the growing digital sector, with tech jobs making up 12 percent of all open vacancies in the UK.

Weekly job positions for all sectors reached one million in May – the last time hiring was at this level was November 2019, the data shows.

And it seems that the most sought after people are software developers, with nearly 10,000 open roles, according to the data. Web designers and data analysts, as well as AI specialists are also highly sought after.

The vacant positions come as many businesses and firms ramp up their IT and tech teams to meet the demand for tech products and services driven by the pandemic.

The research points out that key areas of life such as retail and healthcare have become increasingly digitised. And e-commerce spending is expected to account for more than 30 percent of total retail sales in the UK in 2021, up from 21.8 percent in 2019.

Digital healthcare has accelerated with the use of the NHS app rising by 912 percent in the past year.

UK lead

And the growth in IT and digital job vacancies also shows the continued strength of the UK tech sector, despite Brexit.

It should be remembered that the UK for many years has been one of the leading European nations for tech start ups, thanks to the availability of funding in the country.

Indeed, between 2015 and 2020, UK tech companies have raised £48bn in venture capital funding.

And the UK has created 96 unicorn tech companies, including Wise, Starling Bank and Hopin, which are worth a collective £333bn, the research found.

There are also 139 companies on the path to unicorn status (each worth at least $250m), accounting for a third of the next-generation of tech unicorns in Europe.

Not just London

And while London and the surrounding areas continues to the mecca for UK technology jobs (43,529 in total), the research found that the North West is catching up to the South East dominance.

But the sharp increase in remote working tech positions means that many roles based in the South East can effectively be carried out from anywhere in the UK.

This has meant regions such as the North West and West Midlands are also seeing steady expansion of their tech and IT sectors.

The North West has the third-highest number of IT job vacancies overall by region and Manchester has the highest number of IT vacancies outside of London (6,260).

The British government welcomed the data, which said shows the UK tech sector remains in rude health.

“These new figures show our booming tech sector is helping the UK build back better, bringing well-paid jobs and exciting opportunities to people up and down the country,” said digital secretary Oliver Dowden.

“We’re investing heavily in digital infrastructure and skills to help create a golden age for UK tech and help this vibrant industry soar to even further heights,” said Dowden.