Silicon Milkroundabout, the leading jobs fair for the tech startup scene, and job search engine Adzuna, have today revealed new figures that show that there are more jobs than ever before in the UK’s tech startup scene.
Tech hubs around the country, including London’s Tech City, are hiring for 3,229 positions, up 22% since 2012. London leads the startup job market with 34% of all current open positions found in the UK, followed by Cambridge with 27%, Brighton with 11% and Bristol 8%.
The figures also revealed which sectors startups are successfully targeting, as they experience growth and an increased need for talented employees. Software as a Service (SaaS) came in top with 15% of the total demand, followed by Travel & Holiday, Retail & E-Commerce and Music with 11% each, followed by Gaming, Business Management and Social at 10%.
Developers are in hot demand with 1,122 jobs currently on offer, with marketing roles second at 642 and product at 527. In comparison to the wider UK tech market, startups are eager for Ruby developers with 14% of startups hiring, compared to just 2% across the broader tech industry. This is followed by iOS at 8%, Android at 7% and both Java and Python at 6%. Startups also tend to look for more experienced candidates: only 6% of the roles on offer at Silicon Milkroundabout are for graduate-level positions, versus 10% in the wider UK tech market.
The growth in startup jobs corresponds to a growing trend in the technology sector for people to join these smaller, younger companies. In a survey of tech workers conducted by Silicon Milkroundabout, 67% of respondents would be “easily persuaded” to join a startup company and 25% of people said they were “only considering a startup” for their next job. For many this is a new direction: amongst those surveyed 49% have never worked for a startup before. Moreover, 72% of respondents did not expect or care about having a higher salary – suggesting that the traditional advantage banks and bigger technology companies have held over startups is lessening in importance.
“More and more people are considering working for a startup because of the benefits that can’t be offered to employees at a bank or larger tech company” said Pete Smith, co-founder of Silicon Milkroundabout.
“Our survey found that when looking to work for a startup candidates highly rated equity (65%), job satisfaction (97%) and learning opportunities (97%), as well as getting a say in hiring colleagues, closer proximity to customers, and being at the cutting edge of technology.
“As the UK tech startup scene continues to mature, more of us will get the chance to experience from the inside the excitement and pace of development that is being achieved in these small, ambitious teams.”
Andrew Hunter, Adzuna co-founder, added "It's great to see the UK tech start up scene really moving through the gears in 2013. It's clear from the data that more and more job seekers are choosing startups over banks. The pay might not be quite as good, but the excitement of startup life and chance to make an immediate difference are clearly enticing more and more bright minds into start ups"
The top hiring startups in the UK, which include Mind Candy with 38, King with 33, Skyscanner with 30, and onefinestay with 29, will be attending Silicon Milkroundabout next weekend on May 11th and 12th in East London.
Details of the next Silicon Milkroundabout event
Product Management & Design Saturday 11 May 2013
Jobseekers in the fields of Product Management, UX Design (Interaction Design, Visual Design, User Research and Prototyping), Intelligence/Analytics, and Growth Hacking.
Engineering Sunday 12 May 2013
Jobseekers in the fields of Software Engineering, Web Development, QA/Testing, and TechOps.
Time: 12pm – 5pm
Location: Old Truman Brewery, 81 Brick Lane, London E1
URL: http://siliconmilkroundabout.com
Companies attending include: Badoo, King, YPlan, Moo.com, Songkick, Lift London, General Assembly, Dattch, Apps for Good, Skyscanner, onefinestay, Notonthehightstreet, graze, Blaze Components, Click Mechanic, and Hungry Planet Games