There is potential to fill some of the IT skills gap right under our noses… here are some tasters from the 2022 BCS Diversity Reports. The four areas covered are age, disability and sex, with a detailed look at ethnicity in conjunction with Coding Black Females. Brian Runciman MBCS reports.
This item starts with a thought–experiment – a rough calculation that has relevance to the skills–gap and the ever–present skilled IT worker shortfall. These numbers are taken from 2021 ONS figures.
- Just 22% (413,000) of the those working in were aged 50 or above – so, if representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there would have be an additional 148,000 IT specialists in the UK aged 50 or above
- There were estimated to be around 13,000 unemployed IT specialists in the UK aged 50 and above
- There were 213,000 IT specialists in the UK with disabilities in 2021 – but if representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there should be an additional 63,000 IT specialists in the UK with disabilities
- There were estimated to have been around 6,000 unemployed IT specialists in the UK with disabilities
- If gender representation in IT were equal to the workforce 'norm' there would have been an additional 486,000 IT specialists in the UK
- Unemployment for female IT specialists in the UK ran at 8,000
- Whilst the proportion of IT specialists from ethnic minority groups is higher than that recorded within the workforce as a whole in the UK, this is not true for black women, where the shortfall is approximately 20,000
- And there were approximately 10,000 unemployed IT specialists from ethnic minority groups.
So , here’s the maths: 148,000 + 13,000 + 63,000 + 6,000 + 486,000 + 8,000 + 20,000 + 10,000 = 754,000
Of course this is an ideal scenario, there are many factors at play, but it shows that a combination of getting already available IT people back into work and getting the diversity balance right gives us potential access to three–quarters of a million much needed IT professionals.
A further look at disability
Though accounting for 21% of the working age population in 2021, people with disabilities constituted only 15% of the total UK workforce. There are regional variations at play too: representation of people with disabilities in the workforce varies across the UK from 7% of IT specialists in Northern Ireland to 17% in Scotland.
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Approximately 19% of all unemployed IT specialists in the UK had some form of disability and the associated unemployment rate (2.6%) was notably higher than that recorded for IT specialists as a whole (1.8%). Amongst those with disabilities, just 53% were in work, compared with 75% of individuals as a whole (aged 16–64).
The bright spot from Scotland found that the level of representation for people with disabilities there was actually higher amongst IT specialists than those within the workforce as a whole (17% versus 15%).
Women's representation on the up
Just three years ago, a blog post on the BCS website showed that the representation of women in IT was largely stagnant, and had been for many years. However, recently it has started to look a little more interesting… the 424,000 female IT specialists in the UK workforce during 2021 represented 22% of the total at that time.
That said, female representation remains well below the level observed within the workforce as a whole (48%). Again, Scotland has a better story: there, women account for 32% of IT specialists.
At £19 per hour, the median hourly earnings for female IT specialists in 2021 was 13% less than that recorded for males working in IT positions (as employees).
