Member Article

Microsoft predicts UK IT surge

Almost 80,000 new jobs will be created over the next four years as thousands of new technology firms set up in business in the UK, technology giant Microsoft has predicted.

Research by the firm suggested more than £50 billion will be spent on IT this year and will increase by 1.8% a year between now and 2013.

The IT market will drive the creation of nearly 2,500 new businesses and 78,200 new jobs between the end of this year and 2013, according to the study.

Most of the new companies will be small and locally owned organisations, and the jobs will be highly skilled and high-quality, said the report.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said: “I am super-enthusiastic about the possibilities for the future, for business at large and for information technology as a propellant of that.

“Whether as a company, industry or society, we have to focus on developing the talent we’re going to need.

“That probably means more investment in education, particularly in science, technology, engineering and maths.

“These are areas in which the UK, the US, the developed economies are not investing in the same ways as emerging economies.”

He added that IT would play a critical part in the future and in economic recovery.

“Information technology is more critical than ever, it’s got a more important role to play … I think there will be about three times as many jobs created in information technology than in the economy at large.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .