Global tech vacancies bounce back from pandemic

The number of tech workers looking for vacancies abroad surged in the final months of 2020 to an all-time high, according to data from global IT jobs site Relocate.me.

David Sapsted

7 January 2021

Although the number searching for overseas jobs sunk to a low in April as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold across the world, the market picked up rapidly in the summer and, in October, Relocate.me recorded the highest number ever visiting the site. Overall, inquiries on the site last year were 39 per cent on 2019.“The pandemic has dramatically affected the way tech companies hire international talent,” said Andrew Stetsenko, CEO and founder of Relocate.me. In previous years, Mr Stetsenko said that about half of companies would invite prospective foreign candidates to on-site interviews.“Now, the interviewing process is entirely remote. Moreover, some companies start working with and onboarding their newly hired foreign employees before getting a work permit.”But despite the growth in remote working, Mr Stetsenko said the lure of overseas destinations still mattered. "Many people still prefer to work from home in some cool place, like Berlin, London, or another bustling startup hub,” he added.Most interest among techies for overseas jobs last year came once more from India, accounting for about 16 per cent of applicants on the Relocate.me site - almost twice the 8.5 per cent coming from second-placed Russia.The top ten of nations generating the most inquiries about jobs on the site was rounded off by Nigeria, Egypt, Ukraine, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil, the US and Iran.For the second year running, Germany topped the list as the most desired destination, just ahead of the Netherlands, Canada and the UK.In fact, seven of the top ten relocation destinations last year were in Europe (Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Spain also figuring) with the only outsiders being the US and Australia, in addition to Canada.

One of the reasons for Germany's popularity was believed to be the fast-track procedure it introduced in March to speed up the process for obtaining a work permit for highly-skilled workers.In the UK, a report from the advocacy organisation Tech Nation shows that tech job vacancies bounced back strongly in the latter half of 2020 as the sector shrugged off the Covid-19 pandemic to attract record levels of investment.As elsewhere, job vacancies in the industry dropped sharply at the outbreak of the pandemic by have since climbed by 50 per cent and, by year's end, were accumulating at a rate of 2.6 per cent per month.Tech Nation said the figures highlighted the resilience of the UK’s digital economy, which now accounts for 10 per cent of all job openings.Additionally, venture capital investment in UK tech firms rose to fresh highs last year as the nation continued to lead the way in Europe. Despite the pandemic, tech companies raised $15 billion in 2020, a slight increase on the $14.8 billion achieved in 2019 and higher than the rest of Europe combined, according to data from Dealroom.