A narrowing pipeline? What changes in UK tech hiring might tell us about future opportunities in the sector
24 March 2025
“A narrowing pipeline? What changes in UK tech hiring might tell us about future opportunities in the sector” is the first of a suite of reports to be published as part of a research programme, funded by The Hg Foundation, into trends in tech hiring, educational pathways into tech and diversity in the sector.
This first report examines trends in the number and nature of online job adverts for tech roles in the UK since 2016. It looks at trends in the volume of job adverts by occupation, and changes in skills and qualification requirements within job adverts.
It finds that the number of ‘core tech’ UK job adverts (e.g. adverts for roles like software developers, IT managers and technicians) has declined sharply since early 2022, particularly for software developers and programmers. Skills requirements are also changing, and qualification mentions are becoming more prevalent.
We invite readers to visit the blog and share their reflections on the key findings in response to the short four-question survey at the bottom of the page.
This report sets the scene for future reports, expected in the summer. The first of these will look at the causes and consequences of the decline in UK tech hiring and where tech hiring managers expect the growth opportunities to be in the future.
The second will look at educational trajectories into the tech workforce and how employment outcomes differ depending on people’s gender, ethnicity and socio-economic background.
Key Findings
- The number of UK job adverts across all sectors has declined sharply since early 2022. There are now 31% fewer live adverts (on average) in 2024/251 compared to 2019/20 pre-pandemic.
- This slowdown has been faster in tech, particularly ‘core tech’ occupations like software development and IT, than it has been in other occupations. In 2024/25, ‘core tech’ advert volumes are now 50% lower than the level before the pandemic in 2019/20.
- This has been driven mainly by a steep decline in software development opportunities post pandemic. For example, the average number of live adverts for programming roles, which was at 42,000 in 2019/20, fell to 14,000 in 2024/25, a decline of 68%. This appears to have led to an unprecedented 10% decline in the number of people employed as software developers between early 2023 and 2024.
- ‘Tech adjacent’ jobs in areas like engineering and natural science have fared better than ‘core tech’ occupations. Adverts for ‘tech adjacent’ roles have also declined, but the decline is much smaller, with volumes only 26% lower in 2024/25 compared to 2019/20.
- International competition and AI may may be partly driving these trends. We heard suggestions from workers in the tech sector that many UK ‘core tech’ jobs being relocated to other countries, but this is hard to trace in data.
- Entry-level tech roles have been particularly affected, with demand for talent more focussed at the mid and senior levels. There are now four times as many adverts for senior than junior programming roles. This raises serious challenges for younger people seeking entry to employment in tech.
- The nature of tech jobs and the skills required is also changing fast. Software development skills are emphasised much less in job adverts than they have previously. By contrast, general skills like project management, as well as some specific technological skills such as data science, have grown in importance.
- Our research has also found that employers are listing qualification requirements more often for tech roles. Across the adverts that listed a qualification requirement in 2024/25, 47% of tech roles required a degree or equivalent, compared to 32% of non-tech roles. This could suggest employers are becoming more selective, although it may also be driven by changes in the nature of roles.