UK IT staff increasingly seeking work abroad

The majority of UK IT professionals would consider migrating abroad to pursue higher quality work and salaries, a recruitment firm warns.

A survey of 228 individuals by The IT Job Board finds 67% of IT professionals are thinking about, or have already applied for, positions overseas. A total of 71% said their move was due to the quality of work while 68% said overseas roles offer higher salaries.

Alex Farrell, managing director at The IT Job Board, says the statistics are alarming.

"If this boils down to quality of the jobs on offer in the UK, or low salaries, then companies need to work hard to improve their offering, in order to attract and retain staff," he said.

"At a time when we are suffering an IT skills shortage, we cannot afford to lose key talent. The onus lies with business managers to develop and nurture their employees and to make the UK's IT job market an attractive one to work in."

A recent report by recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark shows a shortage continues to exist in C# and .Net skills for risk management systems, particularly in investment banking.

Nicola Linkleter, managing director of public sector recruitment at Badenoch & Clark, said, "The increase in demand for desktop support analysts, infrastructure engineers and service delivery professionals has led to a shortage of strong candidates in the marketplace, particularly within the banking industry".

Linkleter added that many local authorities are struggling to find project managers to manage mergers with other public sector bodies.