Demand for IT staff at a record high

A Technology Insights research report from e-skills UK, the sector skills council for business and information technology, reveals that IT employment through to 2020 is forecast to grow at almost twice the UK average. 

According to the report, a record 129,000 new recruits a year are needed to fill IT and telecoms jobs in the UK, both as brand-new roles and to replace those leaving the sector. The highest levels of employment growth are in high skill areas like software professionals, ICT managers, and IT strategy and planning professionals.

The study also highlights that the number of advertised vacancies has also recovered dramatically from a low point of 82,000 per quarter in 2009 to more than 116,000 per quarter in 2011, 70 percent of which were for permanent posts, with development, design and support roles being the most advertised and the most common technical skill requirements being SQL, C, C#, .NET and Java.