The latest Report on Jobs, published today by KPMG and the REC, showed a further steep increase in demand for both permanent and temporary IT workers during November.

Adjusted for seasonal factors, the IT & Computing permanent vacancies index registered well above the neutral 50.0 level at 63.6 in November. Although this was down from 64.2 in October to a 17-month low, the reading was still consistent with a sharp increase in demand that was quicker than the UK average (60.3). Across the ten monitored job categories, IT & Computing has been the best-performing sector in terms of permanent job vacancies for the past five months.

Demand also rose for temporary IT workers midway through the fourth quarter of 2018. The rate of vacancies growth was similar to that seen in the prior month and sharp, with the respective index edging up from 58.5 to 58.6 in November. That said, the expansion was slightly softer than seen on average across the UK (59.7), and placed sixth out of ten in the job sub-sector rankings.

Lisa Heneghan, head of digital transformation at KPMG said: “In the wake of several high profile breaches, companies are investing heavily in their cyber security teams and demand for IT specialists surged in November. This hiring boom has caused a skills shortage in the sector, with recruiters struggling to find enough candidates qualified in IT security to satisfy demand.  Faced with such stiff levels of competition businesses need to rethink their recruitment strategy.  As well as hiring talent to build up their in house defence capability, they need to upskill the staff they have, or risk losing them to a competitor more willing to make an investment in their careers.”