IT development and engineering vacancies in the UK increased by 13% during the year ending 31 August 2017, according to data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) and Vacancysoft.

The data showed that overall IT vacancies increased by 5.8% year-on-year, with IT management roles up 9.1% over the same period.

In Greater London alone, demand in the IT sector was up 6.2% year-on-year, accounting for around half of all UK vacancies (47.4%). However the greatest growth in demand was recorded in the East Midlands, where demand increased by 22.7%, closely followed by the North East, which saw a 17.2% rise in new openings

APSCo’s data follows Morgan Stanley’s latest AlphaWise CIO Survey, which found that spending on software is set to grow by 5% over the next year as chief information officers prioritise investing in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning and flash storage.

“Looking at enterprise software development specifically, companies are being increasingly pushed to work faster, smarter and more safely,” Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo, said. “It’s a race to the top in terms of agility and customer experience, and improving capabilities through mechanisms such as deep learning offers businesses a competitive advantage.”

“Software development as a discipline is no longer confined to a finite number of specialists working to create off-the-shelf solutions,” Swain said. “Now every business is essentially a technology company and software development is evolving into a continuous R&D commitment. Against this backdrop, we expect demand for developers to remain strong across the UK moving forwards.”  

Meanwhile, APSCo and Vacancysoft data also showed that the number of new job openings within biotech increased by more than a third (36.1%) during the year ending 31 August 2017. This is despite the fact that overall vacancies within the life sciences sector dipped by 5.2% during the same period.

Demand for professionals within ‘Big Pharma’ decreased by 12.2%, while hiring activity within Contract Research Organisations (CROs) remained largely stable, with vacancies dipping by 0.15% over the 12-month period.

The majority of vacancies recorded (55.4%) continue to be for scientists, however the profession saw 6.3% fewer openings year-on-year. Demand for sales staff, meanwhile, increased by 8.8% over the year.  

“Despite concerns around how reduced access to markets post-Brexit will impact UK pharma jobs, the sector remained resilient in the year to August, with biotech performing particularly well,” Swain said.