‘Teflon’ tech sector beats new dip in professional jobs

technology_11The technology industry continues to ride out the Covid-19 pandemic, with the recruitment market witnessing unprecedented growth and vacancies soaring on average by 100% since 2020 and 62% when compared with 2019.

The findings – from professional services recruiter Robert Walters ahead of the launch of its 2022 UK Salary Guide – reveal that the tech sector has even fought off a November drop, which saw vacancies across other professions dip 9%, ending an 10-month hiring spree.

October was a record month for vacancies across technology, media and telecoms companies – and September, October and November 2021 were all in the top three months in terms of total vacancies over the last three years.

Robert Walters managing director Chris Poole commented: “The ongoing growth in the technology sector can be attributed in part to the increasing amount of investment from VC and Angel firms – with 2021 already shaping up to be a record year for investment into start-ups (now the fastest growing part of the sector).

“We can see this in the way hiring has continued to shift to tech, product and project management roles (+83%) – with specialists being recruited at pace to help lead on bringing solutions to market.

“The technology sector, in particular, we expect to outperform 2021 next year as there are no signs that funding is going to dry up. Fintech has become a major area which the UK leads on, similarly new areas are emerging, such as AI and green technology – which the UK is making smart moves to lead on.”

Tech support (+105%), consultants (+92%), cybersecurity (+77%), development (+74%), infrastructure (+54%), and analyst (+43%) roles have all been in high demand when compared to 2019 levels.

In response to the November decline across other sectors, Poole said: “It is not surprising to hear that hiring slowed – where following the reopening of many sectors post lockdown, businesses made immediate staffing assessments based on people leaving or not returning, which in-turn led to a short-term spike in hiring that was always going to be temporary.

“The emergence of a new variant has yet again left members of Parliament sitting on either side of the lockdown argument – creating a lingering air of uncertainty across businesses, particularly within the retail, leisure and hospitality space.

“Nonetheless, the UK is better placed to handle Covid over winter than other European countries – in part due to an early lift of lockdown measures, backed by the vaccine and booster programme roll-out. This means that while in other countries we may well see a complete recruitment freeze take place in certain areas, this is unlikely to happen in the UK.”

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