Tech skills gap hurting demand for IT staff

Demand for IT workers has increased, but permanent roles have hit a 25-month low as the tech skills gap begins to bite, according to a monthly report from KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Permanent vacancies in the sector posted a 25-month low of 62.1 according to the companies' seasonal index, down more than two points from 64.3 in June. Temporary IT staff reported a lower drop, coming in at 59.2 in July, compared to 60.1 in June.

IT was the sixth most in demand permanent job out of nine sectors in the month, while it ranked eight out of nine in the temporary market.

The digital skills shortage was also a factor in the drop and it's a problem that doesn't appear to be improving, Heath Jackson, partner in the CIO Advisory practice at KPMG, said.

"It is clear we are in the grip of an industry wide skills shortage, which shows no signs of abating," he explained. "Businesses are struggling to find the talent they need and this will have long term implications for their growth plans and potentially impact the wider performance of the UK's economy. In July over two fifths of recruiters reported a fall in the number of people looking for work, the steepest decline seen in eight months."

He doesn't expect to see any kind of improvement in the situation in the near future, especially with businesses and candidates delaying their plans over summer, slowing down the process to get young people in digital jobs.