Latest news : ICT skills gap

There is a decline in the number of ‘ready candidates’ for ICT positions according to the latest issue of the e-skills Bulletin.

The findings from January to March 2010 mean there is a resulting increase in the number of jobs available leaving recruiters with the greater challenge of finding appropriate candidates.

As a result, advertised pay rates were seen to rise for both permanent and contract positions with increases of up to 9% in a number of ICT roles.

The number of advertised vacancies for ICT staff rose for the third consecutive quarter to 86,000 positions even though recruitment declined across the economy as a whole.
 
It’s good news for some roles, as demand has increased over the past three consecutive quarters. These include: Senior Business Analysts, Senior Test Analysts, Development Team Leaders and Software/Programming Managers.

Some more good news for ICT graduates is that the number of unemployed fell to 48,000 whilst the associated unemployment rate now stands at 4.4% - well below the UK average of 8.3%. This now sees the number of ICT professionals working in the UK rise to 1,065,000.

It also seems that those ICT professionals with a job are pretty happy as the number seeking to change job fell to 68,000 people or approximately 6% of the total IT professional workforce.

Around one quarter of all ICT professionals (approximately 263,000 people) had received education or training during the previous 13 weeks.