The total number of IT roles advertised across the UK grew by 9 percent in the first three months of 2015, with permanent roles increasing by 18 percent, according to the latest Tech Cities Job Watch, asurvey from professional resourcing specialist, Experis.

The report is the second in a quarterly series, and analyses over 59,000 UK IT jobs advertised between January and March 2015. It reveals a strong upward trend in IT hiring demand in key technology areas¹ across the UK’s ‘Tech Cities’.² Geoff Smith, Managing Director, Experis Europe, says: “Q1 is commonly when companies release their annual recruitment budgets. This, combined with growing economic confidence for the coming year, has likely contributed to growth in permanent recruitment activity.”

“Across the UK’s Tech Cities, a greater take-up of Cloud and E-commerce services has also increased security requirements. High profile cybercrime events over the past year have illustrated the severe brand and material damage that can hit underprepared companies. This has put security hiring high on the radar.” Adverts for IT Security roles in London increased to 6,396, 32 percent higher than Q4 2014, and grew twice as fast in Tech Cities, rising 65 percent to 1,861 roles advertised.

Cloud specialists were also in high demand, with 8,257 roles advertised during the period, an increase of 23 percent since last quarter. Notably, Cloud roles grew 13 percent faster in the UK’s ‘Tech Cities’ outside London, with Cambridge, Bristol and Manchester showing the strongest demand. Cloud roles offered in the City of Cambridge offered the highest salaries, at an average of £50,034. The average advertised IT permanent salary increased slightly (3 percent) to £48,820 across tech disciplines.¹ Big Data roles paid the highest average salary out of the five technology disciplines covered in the report.

Smith concludes: “With the General Election only a week away, all parties have stressed the need to place tech education and skills development much higher up the agenda. Our report highlights that demand for specialist IT and tech roles continues to be very strong, and is growing not just in London but across the country. Putting policies in place which help to meet the growing demand for skilled workers across the UK’s Tech Cities should be a priority for whichever party or coalition of parties form a government next month.”

¹ Job postings were grouped into five tech disciplines: Web Development, Mobile, Cloud, IT Security and Big Data

² The ‘Tech Cities’ covered in this report are: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Sheffield

Total IT jobs advertised (permanent, temporary, contract, & other)

Average permanent salaries advertised (Q1 2015)

*Shading to indicate the top three cities, salary-wise for each discipline

Average contractor day rates advertised (Q1 2015)

*Shading to indicate the top three cities, by day-rate for each discipline

 www.experis.co.uk