Remote working fuels huge growth in IT vacancies with demand up 71%

Despite the impact Covid-19 has had on recruitment activity, professional IT vacancies have fared considerably well, with the number of jobs available in quarter one 2021 71.7% higher than the same time a year earlier. That’s according to new research from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo), the trade association for the recruitment sector.

Remote working drives demand with London dominating hiring landscape

The data, provided by business intelligence specialist Vacancysoft, revealed that while IT recruitment dipped significantly after the first national lockdown, hiring recovered throughout the year and surged during the first three months of 2021, with vacancies up 71.7% compared with quarter one 2021. This surge in demand is largely attributed to the increased requirements for tech professionals to keep Britain connected and businesses open during the pandemic.

The data also revealed that London has led much of the hiring for IT professionals, with vacancies 28.3% higher in quarter one 2021 than the capital’s quarterly average across the entire of 2020. Employers in the Capital hired 12,080 senior IT vacancies during the first three months of the year, with its share of the overall market 46.3%, up from 44.9% in 2020.

Amazon continues to be most active hirer  

Across the companies hiring for IT talent in the first three months of this year, Amazon topped the table with 439 vacancies, perhaps unsurprising given the huge move to online shopping since the early days of the pandemic. The data also reveals that there was notable hiring activity across Facebook and Vodafone, with recruitment at the former in the first three months of the year already higher than all of last year.

Ann Swain, CEO of APSCo comments: “The fact that IT vacancies have performed so well is incredibly encouraging and reflective of the huge move to remote working over the last year, and, as increasing numbers of employers start to look to the future which will undoubtedly include hybrid working models, we expect demand for tech professionals to remain strong.”