For everyone involved in IT recruitment, the burst of activity seen in July was a welcome relief, as vacancies ended up hitting levels not seen since Q1. Indeed, the final total for the month, was the third highest since April 2023. Nonetheless, the pragmatists will recognize that the general election being announced in May, resulted in many businesses deferring investment decisions, including hiring, until after the result, which had meant that Q2 was materially quieter than Q1. So the burst in July could just be the result of that pent up demand being recognized.

Similarly, whilst Rishi Sunak had looked to implement initiatives to bolster the high tech industries, including the AI Bletchley Park conference, along with extending the SEISS initiatives, the Labour Party have yet to declare their hand here. Big technology companies are now seeing a rebalancing of their share prices after profit warnings, and some are actively now conducting global redundancy programs, with Intel being the latest to do so. At a time when every country is lobbying to make themselves attractive for direct foreign investment, the budget to come this autumn is taking on extra significance.

Nonetheless, the UK does have some strong cards to play. First of all, the UK has long standing strategic importance for many of the largest global businesses, which means that from a systemic point of view, even if companies reduce headcounts, it is unlikely they will shut down operations, which is a threat some countries have. Similarly, given the ecosystems within the UK, around AI, IT Security, Fintech and other advanced applied versions of technology, new incumbents need to make the UK part of their global strategy to be effective. And with now Revolut securing a provisional banking license, this will be a positive for Fintech overall, which as touched on previously, is having a record year for funding. Indeed, given the stasis amongst the bigger companies, it is probable that it will be the scale-ups which drive the growth in IT for the remainder of this year. Hence tracking companies getting funding is of key significance to understanding the underlying health and direction of the sector.

It is for this reason, we are now incorporating into our subscriptions for IT recruiters, updates and analytics around scale-ups getting funding in the UK, for no extra cost.

On top of this, as part of our commitment to the IT recruitment community, from September we will be launching a monthly webinar, entitled IT Job Watch, where we will be analysing:

• IT Vacancy Benchmarking – what direction is the market going in
• Macro Economic Data – how does that feed into the job market
• Big Tech share prices – which PLCs have quarterly reports due in the month to come – and what does it mean
• Latest Major Redundancies – where are they focused by location and function
• Scale Up Appointments – who is being brought in to lead scale up teams as part of the executive leadership
• Office Moves – which companies are announcing they are changing offices for significantly bigger space
• Regional Analysis – what regions have seen the biggest change in the past month
• Skills in Demand – where are skills are surging? And by what market segment?
• SME recruitment surges – which SME companies have had a recruitment surge in the last month for IT roles?

This webinar will be free to attend, for all recruiters, regardless of whether you are currently subscribed or not, and for those who find it interesting, is part of what will be including on our analytics platform with the next update we are doing. If you would like to attend the webinar, please do drop me a reply and we will send out the registration form to you. And if you think there is someone you know, who should attend, do forward this over. As a final point, if there is anything you would like us to include in this first webinar, just drop a reply and we will try to include it for you!