Demand for IT staff continues apace

Advertised vacancies for IT staff by UK companies surged to more than 165,000 over the third quarter of the year, according to a new survey.

David Sapsted

5 November 2019

An analysis of employment and labour data by CompTIA, a trade association for the global technology industry, showed that the number of job postings in Q3 was up 19 per cent over the previous quarter."Interestingly, only about one in ten of all IT job postings cited the need for three or more years of experience," said Amy Carrado, senior director of research and market intelligence at CompTIA. "That's good news for anyone in search of immediate employment options and long-term career advancement possibilities."The survey found that IT positions accounted for about nine per cent of the total of 1.87 million job over the quarter with programmers and software developers being the most sought-after skills, representing some 59,000 postings for job openings.Other in-demand positions included IT business analysts, architects and system designers (26,705) and IT user support technicians (20,701).CompTIA said the also illustrated the breadth of career opportunities in the technology sector, from the types of companies seeking IT workers to the geographic locations of those jobs.UK employers with the most IT job postings in Q3 included the National Health Service, Amazon, HSBC Holdings, British Telecom, and Deloitte. Meanwhile, local demand for tech talent was much higher in areas such London, Birmingham, Cambridge and Edinburgh.But Graham Hunter, CompTIA's vice president for skills certification in Europe and the Middle East, said: "There are no barriers or boundaries to where technology is making its impact. Virtually every market, industry and company, from the smallest business to the largest enterprise, offers employment opportunities in the IT field."The complete 'CompTIA UK IT Employment Snapshot' for Q3 is available here.