UK tech jobs surpass pre-pandemic levels, despite rising unemployment

The IT sector employed about 1.6 million people in Q4 2020, versus 1.5 million in Q4 2019

The UK's IT job market continued to recruit strongly in 2020, despite overall UK unemployment rising to a five-year high of 5.1 per cent.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of 'information and communication' jobs in country has surpassed pre-pandemic levels, with more individuals employed in the sector than at any time in its history.

Nearly 1.6 million people had roles in Britain's tech sector in Q4 2020, up from 1.5 million in Q2. The IT industry has created more than 100,000 jobs since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and more than 300,000 jobs over the last three years.

The ONS data shows which areas of the tech industry are performing particularly well. For example, public infrastructure cloud recorded 33 per cent growth in the past 12 months, and personal computer sales also increased. In contrast, the enterprise data centre space performed poorly.

ONS has maintained tech sector employment records since 1997, when around 743,000 people were employed in the space.

Given its dependence on cloud-based services and collaboration platforms, and because of the growing need for cyber security products in the remote working era, analysts expect the UK tech sector to continue to grow

Around two-thirds of the UK's tech leaders will seek to increase their teams in the Q1 2021, according to a recent Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO survey. Data scientists, data analysts and individuals with AI and cyber skills are in particularly high demand. The market for software developers is also growing.

Despite encouraging figures in the tech sector, the ONS data also shows that the UK unemployment rate rose to 5.1 per cent in Q4 2020: its highest in nearly five years.

The number of people in paid employment shrank by more than 500,000 through 2020, and nearly 200,000 young people have been without jobs for six months or longer.

However, the unemployment rate is still lower than it would have been without the government's Job Retention Scheme, which Chancellor Rishi Sunak appears set to extend next week.

This scheme is the UK's most expensive economic support measure to combat the effects of the coronavirus - expected to cost around £70 billion by its scheduled expiry date of 30^th April 2021.