Member Article

Data reveals record-breaking vacancies in the IT sector

Vacancies for IT professionals rose significantly in England and Wales throughout 2021, with an all-time high of 13,000 vacancies recorded in October alone. That’s according to new research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), the trade association for the recruitment sector.

The data, provided by business intelligence specialist Vacancysoft reveals that London continues to dominate the hiring landscape, with 56,800 vacancies published so far in 2021, marking a 105.6% year-on-year rise. The South East has published the second-largest number of new IT jobs and is experiencing slightly faster growth than the Capital with a 106.5% year-on-year increase. Conversely, the East of England experienced much slower growth with a 53.6% year-on-year rise.

When broken down by sector, media comes out on top for the fastest growth in IT recruitment, with hiring levels up by 112.2% year-on-year. This could be attributed to the record £4 billion investment that was spent on television production over the last 12 months in an attempt to help the sector bounce back from the pandemic. Vacancies for IT experts in insurance are the slowest to grow, only seeing a 33.5% year-on-year increase.

Elsewhere, Nationwide Building Society is the busiest recruiter of IT experts in England and Wales, publishing over 1,690 new jobs and reporting an 80% year-on-year increase, perhaps explainable by the housing market’s extreme rise in activity during 2021. With 20 fewer vacancies, Sky follows closely behind but shows faster growth, reporting a 121% year-on-year increase.

Ann Swain, CEO of APSCo comments:

“With the pandemic forcing most businesses into a remote or hybrid way of working it’s no surprise that IT professionals are in increasingly high demand. However, these experts were already in short supply before the pandemic and this sharp increase is putting increased pressure on recruiters and hiring teams. What we do expect to see is a continued increase in reliance on the contingent IT workforce to fill resourcing needs throughout 2022.”

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