Carly Minsky, September 23, 2021 2 min read
A boom in investment in UK tech has led to a surge in hiring across the country with tech-related vacancies now making up 13% of all UK job vacancies, up from 12.3% for the same period last year, according to data analysed by smarter job search engine Adzuna for the UK’s Digital Economy Council and Tech Nation’s Jobs and Skills Report 2021.
Nearly three million people, or 9% of the UK workforce, are employed in the UK tech industry. Companies across the UK are hiring rapidly to help grow their businesses, following £13.5bn investment into UK tech in the first half of 2021.
The data shows that the number of advertised tech roles is 42% higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019, with cities including Preston, Cardiff and Edinburgh seeing some of the sharpest increases in vacancies.
Digital Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “It’s been yet another record-breaking year for UK tech – and that means thousands of high-quality jobs for people across the entire country.
“The jobs are there. We’re working tirelessly to make sure people who want to start careers and businesses in tech are supported with the skills they need to fill them, and to thrive.”
Strong employer demand for tech jobs is an important factor in fuelling the levelling up of UK nations and regions.
The number of advertised tech jobs is rising rapidly month on month across the UK. Most notably, East of England, Northern Ireland, South East England and the East Midlands clocked growth rates over 12.4%, the top four fastest growing tech job markets in the UK.
Tech has become an evermore pervasive part of the modern economy, enabling transactions and communication at what would have been unforeseen speeds just a few decades ago.
From just over 2 million people in the digital tech economy (including all jobs in the tech sector, as well as tech jobs in the economy more broadly) in 2005, there has been close to a 50% increase in jobs.
Non-technical jobs within the tech sector are key to driving the performance of scaling companies. Over 36% of jobs in the digital tech economy are in non-tech occupations, like HR, legal, finance and sales.
The average tech salary is up to 50% higher than the average for all vacancies in the UK, and is increasing, whilst the average salary for all jobs in the UK has decreased in 2021.
Front-end developers and data scientist roles have seen the highest increase in salary over the last three years, at 34% and 31% respectively.
Senior tech jobs are particular in demand, with senior roles offering on average double the annual salary compared to junior positions – £55,000 compared to £27,000 for software developers, and £70,000 compared to £35,000 for data scientists.
More than two-thirds of advertised vacancies across all tech jobs are for senior positions; the proportion is even higher for data scientist and front-end developer roles (85%) and IT system architects (89%).
This stands in contrast to many industries where the number of opportunities become fewer further up the career ladder.
Dr George Windsor, head of insights at Tech Nation, said: “[The findings] demonstrate how confidence in UK tech has grown over the past few months.
“From software developers to business analysts, people can have long and rewarding careers in the sector. With nearly 3 million people working in the industry already, this is set to increase steadily over the next year.”
