Advertised tech sector roles grew by 12% in 2017

Advertisements seeking candidates for technology-based jobs increased in 2017, according to research.

The study by Reed Technology found that the number of roles advertised in the tech sector grew by 12% in 2017 compared with 2016.

The average salaries offered with these roles also showed a year-on-year rise from the beginning of 2018, compared with the same period a year before.

Andy Gardner, senior divisional director of Reed Technology, said that because there is a talent shortage in the UK, firms are often being forced to raise the salaries on offer to attract new workers.

“Technology is in the privileged position of spearheading the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ and those within it are perfectly positioned to secure long and satisfying careers for themselves,” he said.

The UK has significant technology and digital skills gaps, with more empty roles than there are skilled people to fill them. In the north of England alone, there are 1.4 jobs for every skilled digital worker.

To cater to this, many employers are raising the salaries for in-demand roles – Reed Technologies found that, on average, technology salaries increased by 1.6% in 2017 and some more technical workers, such as Java developers, saw salaries rise by as much as 9%.

There has been increasing demand for roles such as cyber security specialists and data scientists as organisations’ collection, use and protection of data has become more integral to their success as a business.

However, Reed’s research found that across the UK, the average salaries for these roles in particular have not increased much in the past year, with the average data science salary rising by only 1% at the beginning of 2018 compared with the previous year, and the average salary for an information security specialist staying the same – although salaries for cyber specialists are predicted to rise over the next year.

Reed Technologies found that the average salary offered for business intelligence developers, business analysts and desktop support staff rose by 7% over the last year.

The need for technology skills is more desperate in some areas than others, and many skilled workers tend to collect in various hubs around the country, with the main focus on London.

Regionally, the West Midlands saw the biggest increase in average tech salary, with the average across all IT roles in the region growing by 3.4%.

London saw a slightly lower increase in tech salaries, with an average rise of 1.5% over the last year.

But Gardner pointed out that more is being expected of the modern technology professional, including the ability to combine a variety of skills, such as people management, and commercial and financial understanding.

He said tech professionals “cannot merely be skilled analysts and developers” and increasingly firms are demanding that candidates have softer skills as well as the more technical skills needed to perform roles.