UK Employers Continue to Seek Software Skills and Core IT Talent

Employers in the United Kingdom continued their quest in Q2 2019 to hire software developers and programmers and professionals with core IT skills, according to an analysis of employment data by CompTIA, the leading trade association for the global technology industry.

Employers posted job openings for an estimated 141,395 information technology (IT) positions in Q2, CompTIA’s examination of data from Burning Glass Technologies Labour Insights reveals. The Q2 IT job posting numbers were down 13 percent from Q1.; and lower than Q2 2018.

The UK unemployment rate for the three-month period from March through May 2019 was 3.8 percent, down from 4.2 percent one year earlier, and the lowest unemployment rate since the October-December 1974 period.

Among the total Q2 job postings for IT occupations, some 50,329 positions for software programmers and developers were advertised. Other in-demand occupations organizations were looking to fill included IT business analysts, architects and systems designers (21,605 job ads), IT user support technicians (16,764), IT and telecommunications professionals (13,246), IT operations technicians (12,560), and web designers and developers (12,427).

The UK employers with the most IT job postings in Q2 were the National Health Service, Amazon, British Sky Broadcasting Group, GCI Group, and Square One Group. The diversity of employers with open IT positions demonstrates that the demand for tech talent extends well beyond technology companies to all sectors of the economy.

The size of the UK IT workforce continues to grow year over year. It is projected to increase by more than 14,000 workers this year to 1.3 million. Additionally, job growth of 4 percent — 48,000 new jobs — is projected for the five-year period from 2018 through 2023.