08 July 2016

Average permanent salaries in five disciplines. [Open in new window for larger view.] SOURCE EXPERIS

Demand for skills in areas such as cloud, security and Big Data is on the rise across the UK and pushing up salaries, according to HR specialist Experis.

In its Tech Cities Job Watch report, the company tracks 60,513 UK IT jobs advertised across five key disciplines: Big Data; cloud; security; mobile; and web development. 

In its latest report which covers the first quarter of this year, Experis revealed that overall demand across all five areas grew 2.3 per cent compared to the same period in 2015. 

It said the tech cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle upon Tyne are narrowing the gap on London’s dominance. 

Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham reported the most demand for IT roles across the regions, with Birmingham seeing a 70 per cent increase in all five disciplines since Q1 2015. 

“The tech hubs outside of the capital are growing quickly,” said Experis MD Geoff Smith. “We’re seeing these challenger cities become more attractive, as housing, travel and lifestyle costs continue to soar in London and people grow tired of the rat race lifestyle. As such, the likes of Manchester and Leeds, which can offer a better quality of life, are becoming more popular. ”

Demand for IT security pros has increased the most, with a year-on-year rise of 19 per cent. According to the Job Watch, 4,218 extra IT security roles were advertised in Q1 2016.

Experis said following recent, high-profile data breaches, businesses are willing to pay more for highly skilled cyber security experts to ensure their IT security is robust. 

It said this area saw the largest quarterly increase in permanent salaries at 2.47 per cent. The average salary for permanent IT security pros is now £56,323, with the highest earnings to be had in London, Birmingham and Brighton. 

The study found that Big Data attracted the biggest annual increase in salary at 8.16 per cent. The average salary for permanent specialists in this discipline is now said to be £64,787, with those in Birmingham, London and Glasgow bringing in the most.

Experis believes the Big Data industry is thriving because businesses are realising the benefits of using personal data to better understand customers and predict future trends.

It said compliance is another major factor contributing to this surge, with the new EU Data Protection Regulation (see p2, Jan 2016 issue) forcing organisations to bring big data and compliance skills in-house.