Starting in 2008 ecm have produced an annual Report based on an in-depth survey of the salaries and benefits offered by their clients. The last full Report was published in January 2016 and provided a guide to job offers competitive at that time. During 2016 ecm are offering quarterly updates on the state of the high-tech recruitment market.

The Q2 2016 Update

There has been a noticeable increase in the number of purely hands-on software roles – particularly embedded software – that are offering salaries in the £60-70k bracket. And in terms of technical skills, Python has been in significantly greater demand.

At the turn of the year, many of ecm's clients had further significant growth plans for 2016. However, the announcement back in February of the EU membership referendum inevitably has led to significant uncertainty about the future course of the UK economy – at least until the result is known. Of course there are variations from company to company but overall it would seem that this uncertainty has depressed demand. Just last week it was reported that UK unemployment rose for the first time since mid-2015.

As mentioned in ecm's Report, the UK government is actively seeking views on draft regulations that will increase transparency around the differences in pay between men and women. The proposal envisages businesses with 250 or more employees having to carry out an equal pay review and publish information about any gender pay gap. The consultation ran for a month and ended in March 2016. At the time of writing, the outcome to this public feedback is awaited.

Please contact ecm for details of the Report and a copy of the full Update. And do watch out for ecm’s next Quarterly Update on the state of the high-tech recruitment market, due in Q3 2016.