The UK is expected to add nearly 15,000 technology jobs this year, according to a new report from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA).

CompTIA’s State of the Tech Workforce UK report analysed tech employment, economic impact, technology trends, salaries, hiring activity and other measures for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and 13 metropolitan regions across the UK.

The report suggested that the tech sector is growing across the UK, with organisations employing approximately 1.98 million tech workers last year, with 14,959 UK technology jobs expected to be added in 2022.

Job growth was slower than expected as the UK continued to navigate through Covid’s economic impact, but the tech industry avoided the job losses that affected many other industry sectors in the region, data found.

CompTIA said that, since 2016, tech employment increased by an estimated 62,140 new jobs or about 10,356 new jobs each year.

Nearly 20% of all employer tech job postings in 2021 were for positions in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation, blockchain and internet of things, or jobs requiring skills in those areas.

Most tech workers (591,335) are tied to employers in IT consultancy and services, such as managed services providers. Other well-represented sectors include telecoms, data processing and web portals (269,336); software and custom development (232,965); and tech manufacturing (109,868).

Commenting on the research, Graham Hunter, executive vice president at CompTIA, said: “The tech sector in the UK is strong and growing stronger each year.

“The evidence is clear: A well-trained and certified tech workforce makes a significant impact on the nation’s economy. And businesses of all sorts will need more skilled workers if we are going to maintain the growth resulting from the ongoing digital transformation efforts that accelerated during the pandemic.”

Recommended

• Comment | How to sustainably reduce, reuse & recycle electrical waste
• Scots AI firm Aveni gains £2.75m to pioneer conversational tech
• Cloudflare outage brings down Shopify, Fitbit, Doordash, and other services

Around 188,812 tech firms with payrolls are present across the UK, with 44,831 tech business establishments in London. Northern Ireland is projected to see the largest tech employment percentage increase in 2022, followed by Scotland and England.

The top four metropolitan areas (London, Manchester, Bristol, and Glasgow) are home to more than 572,500 tech industry and tech occupation workers, or about one in three tech workers in the region.

Six metropolitan areas, which include Edinburgh and Glasgow, have a higher concentration of tech workers than the national benchmark of 6.3%.

Estelle Johannes, senior director of global communities at CompTIA, added: “Over the last few years, the technology industry and technology professionals have proven how vital they are to the entire nation.

“The drastic changes and ongoing uncertainty highlighted how important a robust technology ecosystem is to the success of the economy.”

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.