Over the past couple of years, London and the South East
have seen a resurgent IT jobs market, with some of the highest paid
roles available from blue chip international firms.
Permanent IT professionals in the City of London are bringing in
an average of £50,500 a year. In the rest of south east England,
pay does not reach such heights, but rates are still higher than
for comparable jobs elsewhere, and benefits packages are
attractive.
However, the City life is not for everyone and there is
interesting and rewarding work in the regions of England, Scotland
and Wales that can offer a variety of challenges for IT
professionals.
The IT market is in a growth cycle, according to Karen Price,
chief executive of sector skills council E-Skills UK. "Investment
seems to be on an upward curve again, and as ever that will flush
out another skills shortage."
Figures from E-Skills UK show that London and the South East
have 38% of the IT workforce. This is compared to 3% in the North
East, 6% in Scotland and 3% in Wales. The employment patterns will
be broadly reflected in the skills shortages - the greatest will be
in London and the South East, Price said.
However, things will change. "A lot of firms are looking at
relocating. In the public sector, lots of functions are going out
of London because of the government's efficiency review. Also, the
BBC is relocating a lot of work to Manchester," Price said.
"I can see a redistribution of IT professionals across the UK.
At the moment there is a very strong focus on regional investment,
a lot in Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester. There is a lot of
opportunity for employers to relocate and there are a lot of
incentives for them to do so." As they do, you will see IT jobs go
with them, Price said.
The Manchester area will benefit from a £225m production
relocation from the BBC, including 1,800 staff.
Up to 20,000 civil servants are expected be relocated from
Whitehall to create savings to the taxpayer of an estimated £2bn
over 15 years. Newcastle, Sheffield, Bristol and Liverpool are
among the places that could benefit from relocation proposals from
Michael Lyons - a professor conducting an inquiry into government
funding and functions - which are backed by Gordon Brown.
Both these relocations will require large numbers of IT support
jobs to move with them.
Jon Butterfield, managing director of recruitment firm ReThink,
said a lot of IT is being moved outside London. "Public sector
employers are looking at replacing consultants from EDS, Accenture
and Capgemini - often they are supplied via agencies anyway. Now
they are coming under more scrutiny because the cost is so
high."
Although the salaries may not be as high as in London, there are
other rewards from public sector work in the regions, Butterfield
said. "It is still a job for life. There is not as much pay, but
other benefits such as holidays and pensions are good and you can
often get a better work/life balance through flexible working."
IT professionals trying to find work in the regions should make
their first port of call local agencies, Butterfield said. "You can
ring up employers individually, but it is difficult enough for us
to get through to HR and all they will do is tell you to send in a
CV. A recruitment agency should know the local market."
In the private sector, globalisation of the labour force is
creating trends for differing IT skills requirements in different
parts of the country. As well as offshoring software development,
businesses are looking at the concept of low-cost, highly-skilled
"onshoring", Price said.
With onshoring, organisations headquartered in London develop
the strategy in their City offices, but business analysts and
systems architects are based outside the capital.
However, George Molyneaux, research director at recruitment
market specialist SSL, warned that the effect of these trends, and
in particular relocating the civil service and the BBC, should not
be overstated.
"The level of support needed in these centres is not the same as
it used to be. I do not think decentralisation is going to make
such a big difference," he said.
Overall, the IT jobs market remains driven by the software
houses based along the M4 corridor, large consultancies in the
South East, and financial institutions based in the major cities,
Molyneaux said.
Recruitment in the regions
The Computer Weekly/SSL Survey of Appointments Data and Trends
reveals strong demand for IT jobs outside London over the past 18
months. Comparing the first quarter of this year to the first
quarter of 2005, web advertising for jobs in the North West
increased by 36%, for example.
However, the latest figures from Computer Weekly/SSL to the end
of June show a decline compared to the first quarter. The number of
jobs advertised on the web and in print in Southern England fell by
7.3% in the second quarter of 2006.
Scotland saw a 14% rise, but all other regions experienced
falling demand, the worst being the North East, down by 15.8%, and
the North West, down by 12.6%.
George Molyneaux, research director at SSL, which conducted the
survey, said most of the drop could be accounted for by a burst in
recruitment at the beginning of 2006. Overall, growth in demand
outside London has been fairly steady over the past 12 months.
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