Year in Review 2022: New IT jobs hit all-time high as London dominates labour market!
A new report with Robert Walters!
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- March 2022 was the peak month for new IT jobs in London
- IT jobs in the Fintech sector thrived in the North East
- Vacancies for Software Engineering were the most in-demand across industries
- Amazon was the busiest firm for IT professional vacancies in 2022
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According to the latest Year in Review UK Technology Labour Market Trends report by Robert Walters and market data analysts Vacancysoft, key recruitment trends also include: IT professional new vacancies experienced steady growth across all industries, returning to pre-pandemic levels in 2022. London closed the year with over 72,000 job postings, an increase of 16.9%, while the rest of England & Wales (E&W) also experienced a yearly increase, a slightly lower result of 14.4%.
Looking at the monthly averages, London’s highest monthly increase for hiring was in March (11.5%), publishing over 7,800 jobs, while the rest of E&W peaked in August (9.5%), with numbers over 7,300 jobs.
James Chaplin, CEO of Vacancysoft, said:
“While the industry experienced modest growth this year compared to the surge in 2021 after the devastating first year of the pandemic, the UK was undoubtedly affected by the 30% decrease in global capital Fintech investment in 2022. In fact, investment in the UK Fintech sector was approximately £10bn in the year, an 8% decrease from 2021”.
A considerable drop in IT vacancies in the Midlands
While London numbers again dominated hiring in the Fintech sector (4.5%), IT jobs thrived in the North East. The region recorded the fastest year-on-year increase (40.5%), just as it did the previous year when it grew almost four-fold (393.8%).
Conversely, the sharpest falls year-on-year for IT professional vacancies in 2022 were seen in the Midlands: the East (-56.1%) and the West (-20.6%), alongside Yorkshire and the Humber (-25.2%).
Quiet year for IT jobs in TMT and other top industries
Segmented by industry, we find that Technology, Media & Telecoms (TMT) unsurprisingly topped the table, achieving in excess of 78,000 vacancies in 2022. While the industry surpassed its totals, it’s 13.6% year-on-year growth was markedly lower than the increase of 2021 (120.8%). Equally, Financial Services also surged (20.2%) but failed to better last year’s yearly rise (79.9%).
A breakdown of in-demand skills shows the increasing importance of Software Engineering, which exceeded 10,000 job vacancies, closing the year with volumes up 25.9%. This was the highest yearly growth among all roles.
PwC fall outside the top five for IT vacancies
An analysis of the busiest firms shows that Amazon again was the top hirer in 2022. The Tech powerhouse finished the year with over 3,600 new jobs – doubling 2021 totals and three times its 2020 mark – an outstanding year-on-year growth of 96.8%.
Barclays was the next best performer, the banking multinational advertising over 2,500 new jobs. It experienced the most significant yearly rise, a huge 127.1% compared to 2021.
Nationwide Building Society also suffered a considerable dip, its volumes falling -33.1% compared to 2021. Of note, ‘Big Four’ accounting giant PwC recorded an even bigger year-on-year drop of -39%, falling further down the table, outside the top 5 firms.
Top 5 firms, Tech vacancies, 2020-22 (see report for Top 20)
| Company | Sector | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
| Amazon | Technology | 1126 | 1834 | 3609 |
| Barclays | Banking | 517 | 1131 | 2568 |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co | Banking | 820 | 1662 | 1844 |
| Version 1 | Technology | 367 | 1315 | 1804 |
| Nationwide Building Society | Banking | 940 | 1834 | 1227 |
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