Right now there are more job vacancies in the IT & Digital sectors than there are tech professionals to fill them. What’s more, these skills gaps seem to be growing. As tech vacancies become harder to fill, it means the demand for IT specialist recruitment agencies is growing too.

This rapid growth in the IT sector shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, it is one of the fastest-growing industries in the UK. For now, it’s encouraging to see IT and technology firms experience positive growth year on year. However, the struggle to find the talented candidates they need could halt tech firms that have, until now, been on an upward trajectory.

Recruitment Agencies Sourcing Critical Skills

The list of critical skills which IT companies are struggling to source on their own is growing in tandem with the industry itself. As the widespread acceleration of development and adoption of IT products by UK businesses rises, the talent pool for tasks such as achieving a commercially competitive advantage and identifying the next disruptive business idea is becoming more and more sparse.

Some of those in the most demand are people with augmented reality development skills, mobile app developers, data scientists and cybersecurity specialists. The numbers of such niche experts begin spreading thin as the demand for them grows, which is why an IT specialist recruitment agency can use their own technical expertise to help businesses identify and attract the ideal candidates.

Other critical skills that recruitment agencies who specialise in finding IT talent can help with include Software as a Service (SaaS), especially for the Cloud, as well as data analytics, digital transformation, applied machine learning and programming languages such as JavaScript and Python.

There is also an increase in the number of companies that not only have the capacity to incorporate artificial intelligence but are actively seeking out AI experts to help expand their business.

Labour, Skills and Talent Shortages

The CEO of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC), Kevin Green, has previously used his organisation’s monthly jobs report to highlight the UK’s shortage of labour, skills and talent. The report, which is produced by IHS Markit on behalf of the REC, has been tracking the growing shortage which has caused employers to turn to recruitment agencies to help fill the voids.

Mr Green said of the UK’s talent shortage:

“This increasing competition for good quality staff is driving up starting salaries with employers willing to pay higher wages to attract the right people. So it is a good time to move jobs, especially as employers aren’t increasing wages for their existing workforce. The struggle to find appropriate candidates will get worse. We are therefore asking for a balanced and evidence-based immigration system. Businesses urgently need to invest in the up-skilling of their workforce.”

UK Businesses Relying on Recruitment Agencies

The UK government was also urged by Mr Green to put the concerns of UK businesses at the top of their agenda, initially by turning the Apprenticeship Levy into a broader training levy.

Such an action could have a positive knock-on effect for the long-term future, but for now and the immediate future UK businesses are heavily reliant on recruitment agencies to identify and attract the top talent in highly skilled sectors such as IT and technology.