News of layoffs in the tech world over the spring and summer may have cooled the aspirations of some who hope to work in the sector, but before you rule it out, it is worth taking a more considered view.
It is true that many companies have announced headcount reductions or revised valuations – notably Cazoo, the secondhand online car retailer, which plans to reduce its employee headcount by 15 per cent, affecting 750 jobs. Klarna, the Swedish buy now, pay later Fintech will lay off 10 per cent of its global workforce and Freetrade, a trading platform headquartered in London, is making 15 per cent of its staff redundant.
There are a number of reasons why this is happening. Some companies which did exceptionally well during the pandemic, for example ecommerce and online delivery apps, are now rowing back as projected targets aren’t being met. For other companies, investors are urging caution in an economy shaken by rising inflation, strangled supply chains, war and a coming recession. As a result, many firms are looking to shore up cash and cut their bottom lines.
Often, cuts don’t happen across the board in tech firms. Poorly performing projects or nonessential teams get culled, and hiring continues apace elsewhere. That is reflected by the fact that there were approximately 870,000 tech and digital job vacancies available between January to May 2022, according to figures from Tech Nation.
Tech job opportunities have hit a 10-year high thanks to the surge in demand over the past two pandemic years, and these roles now make up 14 per cent of all job opportunities in the UK – up from 11 per cent in 2019. Additionally, hiring remains 42 per cent higher than in 2021.
CompTIA’s State of the Tech Workforce UK looks at employment in the sector on an annual basis. This year’s report found that net tech employment was at around 1,978,041 workers in 2021, and is projected to increase by almost 1 per cent in 2022. The report also found that programmers and software development professional jobs grew by 5.8 per cent (the largest increase among tech occupations) during the period 2016 to 2021.
That’s all positive and reassuring news for anyone working in the sector. So, if you’ve got a renewed vigour to make a job switch before the year is out, we are taking a look at three London-based developer roles that are currently available. And as always, you can find plenty more job opportunities on The London Economic Job Board.
Lloyds is on a journey to build the bank of the future, continuing its extensive transformation programme, and redefining what a bank is from the inside out. As a result, it needs a Software Engineer (Adobe Experience Manager) to work in a highly collaborative way to drive efforts to create, build, support and improve its front end client software. You’ll be working closely with the product and engineering teams, and will be ensuring good quality and engineering practices are followed in accordance with engineering transformation strategy. You will need to be able to build efficient and reusable front end systems and abstractions, find and address performance issues, and collaborate with the product/design team to iterate the design function and implement products. Find out more here.
The Platform Services Java Developer will be a part of the Platform Services team, delivering cutting-edge, exciting products pushing the boundaries of performance, while demanding maximum stability and 24/7 uptime. Java, KX (a real time, in memory, analytic database) and Amazon Web Services are the primary technologies of choice. Hackdays, Innovation Days and self-learning are all promoted, and developers have space to fulfil their potential. You will need to be proficient in java to power applications with the spring framework, and kafka for messaging. Additionally you’ll need Oracle DB and MySQL DB for data and linux is the main platform of choice for AWS public and I2 private cloud. Apply for the role now.
Northrop Grumman’s pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled it to be at the forefront of many technological advancements. Working on cutting-edge technology, the Hardware Engineer will lead the successful update of existing hardware due to obsolescence within an important National Defence Submarine Programme. You’ll be electrically design-orientated with CAD capabilities and functional safety experience, leading the creation, modification, maintenance and management of electrical designs as well as leading component selection and system implementation. You’ll need a degree in Electrical Engineering, or similar level of experience, and an understanding of Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) systems up to SIL2 in accordance with IEC 61508. Get the complete job spec.
Discover a new job that’s right for you by searching all the available jobs on the London Economic Job Board today
