As the nation’s capital sees an 18% increase in IT vacancies year-on-year, we reveal trends from last quarter and opportunities for jobseekers in the IT sector.
While the Government progresses its plans for East London’s Tech City to take on Silicon Valley as the global hub for technology, London now makes up 33% of all UK IT jobs advertised. With over 37,000 London-based IT jobs advertised in the second quarter of 2011 alone, the nation’s capital has shown a clear appetite for IT specialists in the recruitment market.
Richard Nott, Website Director at CWJobs comments: “It’s promising to see that the Government’s investment in the IT sector is being reflected in the recruitment market. The quality of IT candidates in the UK is extremely high and often underestimated, so by positioning London at the centre of the technology world, we hope students, graduates and IT specialists will be inspired to take advantage of the opportunities available to them.”
The second quarter of 2011 marks eight consecutive quarters of increasing demand for IT jobseekers and this quarter developers seem to have benefited the most from this trend with developer roles now making up 39% of all jobs advertised in the UK.
SQL, C, C#, .NET and Java continue to be the top five most sought after skills both for permanent and contract IT jobseekers. Emerging skills such as Agile are increasing in demand following a 9% increase in job postings this quarter. VMware and Scrum have also increased by 2% and 7%.
Last year’s public sector cuts led to a 47% decrease in public sector job postings year-on-year. However last quarter this decline steadied after seeing just a 0.5% decrease in the number of permanent vacancies and a 3% increase in the number of contract vacancies. Recruitment in the financial sector, which was hit the hardest during the recession, continues to take steps towards recovery with a 3% increase in postings last quarter. The retail sector also saw a 3% increase, followed by media and manufacturing, which both saw a 2% increase in vacancies.
Posted 2 August 2011
