New guide to track UK's tech jobs boom

The continuing demand for tech skills across the UK has led to the sector's trade association launching a monthly barometer of what specialisms are needed and where.

David Sapsted

3 February 2021

Launched this week in conjunction with leading IT jobs board CWJobs, techUK said its 'Tech Jobs Barometer' had been devised "to share key hiring insights and trends to help employers and recruiters navigate the tech jobs market".Nimmi Patel, techUK's policy manager for skills, talent and diversity, said that, throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, employers had continued to recruit staff for tech roles and that there had been a "huge increase" in the number of people looking to acquire digital skills.She said that surveys showed 62 per cent of UK business executives reported that their tech talent pool did not have the capability needed to deliver firms' digital strategies."New technologies such as AI and Machine Learning are creating requirements for specialist skills that the labour market is struggling to supply, leading to intensifying competition for talent and upwards pressure on tech salaries," Ms Patel added.During 2020, CWJobs said it recorded nearly a quarter of a million (224,000) jobs posted on the site with the top ten roles consisting of .NET developer, Java developer, front end developer, devOps engineer, full stack developer, developer C#, business analyst, software developer, developer .Net C# and PHP developer.The job roles with the most applications on the platform last year were for business analysts, Java developers and IT support engineers.A regional breakdown by CWJobs found that South East England had the most vacancies published in 2020 with 119,217 jobs being featured. North West England was the second highest in-demand region with 19,865 jobs.

According to LinkedIn’s 'Emerging Jobs Report UK' found that more than 44 per cent of professionals working in the emerging roles in 2020 were based in the London area. However, cities across the UK had seen growing demand for IT skills with Belfast, Cardiff and Nottingham seeing year-on-year growth of 35 per cent or more.Antony Walker, deputy CEO at techUK, said: "“Amidst the global pandemic we know that technology and tech-enabled jobs are sustaining the economy, as well as providing the key to our economic recovery."The Tech Jobs Barometer will look at job adverts which allow employers to express their skill needs and highlight the number of opportunities the industry has. techUK is committed to ensuring these opportunities are open to all."This will mean not only ensuring individuals have the right skills to thrive in the future world of work but also that they have the motivation and enthusiasm to create their digital future.”Dominic Harvey, director at CWJobs, added: “As businesses try to emerge from the pandemic in the best shape possible this year, technology will be key to achieving long-term success."As more companies move towards transforming into virtual organisations, increased learning, retraining, and upskilling will offer a continuous and lifelong journey for employees. Tapping into the pipeline of existing and future tech talent will help alleviate the skills gap and ensure the British tech jobs market will remain agile and robust throughout 2021 and beyond.”