London tops IT recruitment charts

Government plans to launch a rival Silicon Valley in east London supported by huge IT recruitment market in the capital, CWJobs claims

London is a hotspot for IT recruitment activity with an 18 per cent increase in demand for jobs in the capital, according to the latest research from CWJobs.co.uk.

As the government presses on with its plans for east London's Tech City, CWJobs claimed that London accounts for 33 per cent of all UK IT jobs advertised.

The second quarter of 2011 is the eighth consecutive quarter of increasing demand for IT jobseekers, with developer roles making up 39 per cent of all jobs advertised in the UK. A total of 37,000 IT jobs were advertised in Q2 2011 in London alone.

Richard Nott, web site director at CWJobs, said: "It's promising to see that the government's investment in the IT sector is being reflected in the recruitment market. The quality of IT candidates in the UK is extremely high and often underestimated, so, by positioning London at the centre of the technology world, we hope students, graduates and IT specialists will be inspired to take advantage of the opportunities available to them."

SQL, C, C#, .NET and Java are still the top five most sought-after skills, claimed CWJobs, but they are closely followed by emerging skills such as Agile, VMware and Scrum.

Swingeing public sector cuts last year led to a 47 per cent decrease in public sector IT job postings, but the most recent quarter saw just a 0.5 per cent decrease in the number of permanent vacancies and a three per cent increase in the number of contract vacancies.

Financial sector and retail recruitment saw a three per cent increase in postings, and media and manufacturing both saw a two per cent increase in vacancies, CWJobs revealed.