UK tech sector shows its resilience in 2020
Despite Covid-19, the UK tech sector demonstrated its resilience in 2020 through continued job creation, investment deals and a record number of industry visa applications.
Data from Tech Nation has revealed that tech job vacancies increased by 50 per cent since the year’s lowest point in July and since then job opportunities also rose at a rate of 2.6 per cent a month, reaching 75,353 open job advertisements in November.
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According to new data compiled for Tech Nation and the government’s Digital Economy Council, 10 per cent of all current UK job vacancies are for tech jobs. This is above the benchmark from the Office for National Statistics that nine per cent of the UK workforce are already employed in the digital tech sector.
The growth in skilled tech jobs also promotes economic acceleration with higher-than-average salaries. The average tech salary in the UK is £53,318, up four per cent from 2019.
Given their need with remote working specialised tech roles are particularly in demand, like network security jobs for which salaries increased 69 per cent on average this year to £85,894.
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The digital tech boom of 2020 is creating jobs with good salaries and prospects across the whole of the UK.
While London makes up nearly one-fifth of all tech vacancies, the South East came second with 15,038 opportunities and North West England has over 7,000 available jobs.
During 2020 Manchester cemented its place as the fastest-growing tech city in Europe while Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Newcastle all achieved more venture capital investment than in 2019.
In addition, Tech Nation saw applications for its tech visa rise from 900 in 2019 to 1,700 last year. The company engaged with 944 new companies in 2020, up from 799 during the previous year.
Read more: UK tech visa programme sees influx of global applicants
“2020 has been a year like no other and we are hugely grateful to those who have worked tirelessly to help us navigate these unprecedented times,” Tech Nation said in a blog on its website.
“At Tech Nation, we have been steadfast in our objective to unlock the growth potential of scale-ups and their leaders during this period.
“2021 is about continuing our own trajectory and that of our cohort companies. It’s about pushing towards our objective of unlocking the growth potential of 1000 scaling tech businesses by 2022, unlocking over $1bn (£73.2m) to the UK economy.
“It’s about growing our world-leading tech ecosystem across a breadth of areas, such as AI, fintech and net zero, and increasing our global reach and influence.
“It’s about nurturing a more inclusive and equitable tech sector for diverse talent through targeted support like our proposed Founders Toolkit. And, ultimately, it’s about harnessing the potential of tech to help the UK build back better.”
