New research has shown that IT recruitment will grow twice as fast as other industry sectors up until 2020, with an estimated 129,000 new people needed each year to meet the expected demand for IT related services and telecom workers.
It was found that there were more than 116,000 new IT jobs advertised each quarter in 2011 compared to only 82,000 per quarter during 2009. Speaking about these results, one senior analyst said: “Technology Insights 2012 shows how important IT and telecoms are for the competitiveness and economic growth of the UK. With IT employment set to grow at such a pace, it is vital that we continue to invest in the skills of those working in technology and create new routes for young people to enter exciting and challenging careers in the industry.”
This news comes on top of figures that were released by a European Commission. It stated that the UK is expected to have a shortage of around 100,000 people when it comes to having adequately skilled people to meet demand, while across Europe the skills shortage is expected to reach approximately 700,000 with the UK’s figures factored in.
Geoff Newman, managing director of IT recruitment specialist RecruitmentGenius.com believes demand is outstripping supply. “With government initiatives in London and Birmingham designed to spur IT investment many businesses are rising to the challenge. However everyone is now fighting over a small group of talented staff and we are seeing scenes similar to Silicon Valley where companies pay grossly inflated salaries and make rash hiring decisions. Demand has been particularly strong for those with key skills including SQL, C# as well as .Net and cloud products such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services.”