IT staff in greater demand than in any other industry

Demand for staff in the IT sector is rising more quickly than in any other part of the economy, according to the latest monthly survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

The Report on Jobs surveys 400 UK recruitment agencies every month to identify trends in the economy.

The research shows that IT staff have been in greater demand than in other sectors for over a year, and that the demand continues to increase particularly for IT sales workers and computer-aided design developers.

“The IT sector has seen some of the strongest demand for staff every month this year,” said REC technology chairman Jeff Brooks.

“It’s clear that, whatever course the economy takes in the coming years, technology is becoming ever more important, and the private and public sectors continue to need a steady flow of highly skilled IT professionals.”

Dave Pye, REC technology executive director, added that the strongest demand for IT skills is in financial services, insurance, telecoms and digital media, along with business analysts, programme managers and ERP developers.

Businesses with temporary vacancies for IT staff try to hire employees with at least three years' experience, but companies with permanent vacancies are considering hiring employees with less experience, continued Pye.

“Because of the shortage of skills, businesses are willing to take on people with less experience and train them up. We have not seen this in previous years as there were more employees available,” he said.  

Pye added that the demand for IT skills has not crashed in the way the industry had expected, despite large-scale IT project cuts in the public sector.

Across the economy, the REC research shows that permanent and temporary staff appointments continued to rise in April, but that the former increased at a faster pace.