IT Contractors are to benefit from IT sector growth in the UK, which is forecast to buck the national average by five times over the next ten years, according to research published by e-skills UK in its new Technology Insights 2011 report. Such growth will accelerate the pace of job creation in the sector, creating an estimated half a million new permanent and contract IT posts.
The e-skills business and information technology sector skills council notes that the demand for IT professionals, including IT contractors, has increased over the last year despite the recession. And it forecasts that over the next decade job creation in the sector will continue at a rate of 2.19% per annum, almost five times the UK average of 0.45%.
According to e-skills UK CEO Karen Price, the sector is becoming desperate for new workers: “With high levels of unemployment in the UK, this research shows that IT & Telecoms is one sector of the economy where employment is growing steadily with an immediate need for new entrants into the workforce to keep up with the demand.”
However, despite predicted growth, the research reveals that only 3% of IT & Telecoms recruiters have reported difficulty in filling positions “due to a lack of candidates with the required skills, qualifications or experience”, so talk of current IT skills shortages may be overstated.
IT contractors are also predicted to play an increasingly key role in delivering the productivity required to sustain the UK’s global competitiveness, as Andy Green, Chair of the e-skills UK board and Global CEO of Logica, explains.
“This new research from e-skills UK demonstrates how the IT & Telecoms sector is fundamental to private-sector-led economic growth in the years ahead,” he says. “We need to leverage the power of technology to deliver productivity and global competitiveness, and to create the high value jobs on which the whole UK economy increasingly depends.”