Mixed future predicted for IT recruitment

Reports released today by e-skills UK and the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) paint a mixed picture ahead for IT professionals and graduates.

Both predict that the IT employment market will grow ahead of total UK workforce growth trends.

In its IT and Telecoms Insights 2008 Employment Forecast series of reports, e-skills UK said the sector would grow by 2.5 per cent in the next eight years to 2016, compared to 0.5 per cent across all sectors in the UK overall.

The AGR Graduate Recruitment survey 2008 found just under a quarter of the 242 UK companies it questioned anticipated an IT skills shortage. Although only nine per cent were worried about gaps in basic computing skills, compared to 56 per cent that said they were concerned about finding graduates with adequate writing skills.

But while those already in the industry are promised smoother career progression through a market growing in demand, according to e-skills UK, IT graduates might not find it so easy.

The employer respondents to the AGR survey - including tech companies and the accounting and banking industries - said they were planning to employ 23,727 graduates overall this year.

But the number of IT vacancies – nine per cent of the AGR total – fell 14 per cent from 2007. And, as a profession, it was the second most over subscribed, with 59 applications received for every vacancy.

Graduate applications for IT roles have also grown and overall nearly one tenth of employers reported receiving more than 10,000 applications this year. But more than half of employers were not satisfied with their ability to retain graduates once they were taken on.

Those employers worried about low levels of mathematics, IT or technology knowledge “believe the answer to the skills and knowledge shortage is to focus on the development of elites rather than on widening graduate participation,” the AGR report concluded.

The reports also come only a day after figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) found nearly a tenth of computer science graduates are listed as unemployed, despite the IT skills gap.

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