Exit from the EU could potentially reduce the UK’s IT workforce by 25%

Research, conducted by Talent Point, has revealed that Brexit (Britain’s potential exit from the EU) could harm the UK’s IT industry – slashing its workforce by 25%.

This reduction could jeopardise the UK’s emerging tech sector and in turn make many of the most innovative start-ups untenable as businesses.

As most roles within the tech industry require specific skills sets, many start-ups cannot escape from the short-term need for a particular language, product or process knowledge on which their success will be dependent.

Impact of Brexit on UK’s tech businesses

Historic data was used to investigate the potential impact that the Brexit could have on tech-driven businesses.

From the data used, which consisted of the continents/countries of origin of 3347 job seekers within the UK tech sector, you can see the impact the Brexit could potentially have on the sector and in turn, the growth of the UK’s economy.

Country of origin: Total job seekers: Percentage:
UK 1728 51.61
EUROPE 828 24.73
ASIA 564 16.85
AFRICA 84 2.51
OCEANIA 83 2.51
NORTH AMERICA 48 1.43
SOUTH AMERICA 12 0.36

UK IT talent pool could narrow

The most impactful aspect of the potential Brexit, as suggested by this data, is the narrowing talent pool. Almost a quarter of job seekers with the UK tech sector are there due to the freedom of movement within the EU. Without the ability for EU citizens to cross borders into the UK freely, 25% of the current UK talent pool would be lost. This, in the short-term, could be very detrimental to start-up companies that require specific skill sets in order to get their companies off the ground.

The low number of job seekers arriving in the UK from Africa, Oceania, North and South America, due to the difficulty of obtaining a work visa, could provide an insight into the future of the UK tech sector. If current EU citizens have to go through the exceeding challenging task of gaining a work visa to remain in, or move to, the UK, the ever-growing tech sector within Britain may become considerably under-skilled.

Britain will hold an in-out referendum on its EU membership on the 23rd of June 2016.

 

Edited from press release by Jordan Platt.

More
articles