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UK tech job openings climb 21% to pre-pandemic highs

24 points by beardyw 1y ago

jpgvm 1y ago
Deep AI/math talent pool. Also a sizeable chunk of HW/FPGA folk too. Given the salary difference vs the bay area I'm surprised more AI focused companies haven't setup London satellite offices.
- lotsofpulp 1y ago
  Job openings are a meaningless measure, especially with all the spam postings (and spam job applicants). Changes in median (or even better, quintile/decile) pay is the only meaningful metric. Preferably from paystubs or tax returns.
dyl000 1y ago
It seems we’re much more fortunate in the UK with our tech openings. I’m hearing it’s a bloodbath in the US, best of luck to you all.
- nasmorn 1y ago
  Europe just never saw an equivalent hiring spree. The mag7 and other big SV companies hiring during the pandemic was historically unprecedented. Google basically doubled in 3 years. That to me still seems like the much harder to explain event compared to the recent firings
tetris11 1y ago
Openings are up, salaries and permanent contracts are not. You will see the same job postings by the same companies being listed on LinkedIn again and again, spaced maybe months apart. Either the postings are not real and people are projecting growth, or the jobs become temporary contracts, or they laugh at you if you ask them to match your current salary. It's also not good news for entry-level techies, since the requirements are still steep. You either have to lie you through your arse, or take a paycut to get these jobs.
- breckenedge 1y ago
  I suspect there’s also a lot of “keeping the candidate pipeline warm” in case there is suddenly an opening that needs to be filled.
rgavuliak 1y ago
UK has pretty bad tech salaries especially for companies located in London and adjusting for living costs.
- grues-dinner 1y ago
  It's amazing there are any engineers or programmers at at all in the UK. When a graduate engineering post is commonly in the region of 25k to 30k, one wonders why anyone would actually aim to do that rather then finance. Sometimes I ask myself the same question - maybe I should have just sold out and I'd be rocking a million-plus detached house like my classmates! It's also a bit depressing to think that there are posts so near what I started at 15 years ago (mid-low 20s), despite 54% inflation over that period, per the BoE calculator (another claims 64%).
  - rgavuliak 1y ago
    I live in Central-Eastern Europe and every time a recruiter tried to get me to move to the UK, the salary was at best on par with what I made over here. Granted, up until recently I've worked remotely for US and other EU countries.
  - heavenlyblue 1y ago
    I don't understand, what do you mean by "sell out"? You are working for cash
  - ifwinterco 1y ago
    There's a big difference between working in 'actual' engineering (civils, mech eng etc.) and programming/software 'engineering'. In the former you're right, salaries are terrible compared to how highly skilled the job is and how much education you need. For the latter, it's definitely not Silicon Valley, but relative to most white collar jobs software engineering still pays fairly well. Definitely a second tier job behind finance (and finance adjacent roles like top tier legal stuff), but not bad, and often with much better hours/WLB than finance or law which can still be fairly brutal
- jfengel 1y ago

24 points by beardyw 1y ago

Deep AI/math talent pool. Also a sizeable chunk of HW/FPGA folk too. Given the salary difference vs the bay area I'm surprised more AI focused companies haven't setup London satellite offices.

lotsofpulp 1y ago
Job openings are a meaningless measure, especially with all the spam postings (and spam job applicants). Changes in median (or even better, quintile/decile) pay is the only meaningful metric. Preferably from paystubs or tax returns.

dyl000 1y ago

It seems we’re much more fortunate in the UK with our tech openings. I’m hearing it’s a bloodbath in the US, best of luck to you all.

nasmorn 1y ago
Europe just never saw an equivalent hiring spree. The mag7 and other big SV companies hiring during the pandemic was historically unprecedented. Google basically doubled in 3 years. That to me still seems like the much harder to explain event compared to the recent firings

tetris11 1y ago

Openings are up, salaries and permanent contracts are not. You will see the same job postings by the same companies being listed on LinkedIn again and again, spaced maybe months apart. Either the postings are not real and people are projecting growth, or the jobs become temporary contracts, or they laugh at you if you ask them to match your current salary. It's also not good news for entry-level techies, since the requirements are still steep. You either have to lie you through your arse, or take a paycut to get these jobs.

breckenedge 1y ago
I suspect there’s also a lot of “keeping the candidate pipeline warm” in case there is suddenly an opening that needs to be filled.

rgavuliak 1y ago

UK has pretty bad tech salaries especially for companies located in London and adjusting for living costs.

grues-dinner 1y ago
It's amazing there are any engineers or programmers at at all in the UK. When a graduate engineering post is commonly in the region of 25k to 30k, one wonders why anyone would actually aim to do that rather then finance. Sometimes I ask myself the same question - maybe I should have just sold out and I'd be rocking a million-plus detached house like my classmates! It's also a bit depressing to think that there are posts so near what I started at 15 years ago (mid-low 20s), despite 54% inflation over that period, per the BoE calculator (another claims 64%).
- rgavuliak 1y ago
  I live in Central-Eastern Europe and every time a recruiter tried to get me to move to the UK, the salary was at best on par with what I made over here. Granted, up until recently I've worked remotely for US and other EU countries.
- heavenlyblue 1y ago
  I don't understand, what do you mean by "sell out"? You are working for cash
- ifwinterco 1y ago
  There's a big difference between working in 'actual' engineering (civils, mech eng etc.) and programming/software 'engineering'. In the former you're right, salaries are terrible compared to how highly skilled the job is and how much education you need. For the latter, it's definitely not Silicon Valley, but relative to most white collar jobs software engineering still pays fairly well. Definitely a second tier job behind finance (and finance adjacent roles like top tier legal stuff), but not bad, and often with much better hours/WLB than finance or law which can still be fairly brutal
jfengel 1y ago