The East Midlands seems to show a boom in technology based jobs in 2021. Back in 2019 the West Midlands report displayed an economic boost across the region. For every ten thousand people, 58 new businesses appeared with the East falling slightly behind the West. Due to this growth they set a record 1.9million jobs created for a growth of 3.1%, three times higher than England's average.
The West however has seen 10.8% higher than average vacancies with the East 2.3% below average. These figures present clues to what our survey guide has recently highlighted.
Across all our technologies jobs surveyed, the East saw an average of 8.8% uplift on 2020. From developers, to designers and software engineers, all rise together. Conversely, in the West, and similarly across the country, figures are low if not negative. For the same jobs in West Midlands, average salaries are posted at -2.3% since 2020. London, once seen as the tech capital, barely raises salaries by 0.2%.
Once described as 'a global tech hub' by the Financial Times; London, and its ever rising cost of living is turning more workers away from city life, in some cases as far as the coast with digital commuting. Before the impact of COVID and the options of remote working allowing people to consider rural housing and cheaper living without worry of commuting, the Midlands has been picking up London's tech leak for years.
With over 13,500 tech businesses as reported by the 2020 Developer Survey from Stack Overflow, the Midlands offers cheaper living for start-up tech businesses. In 2019 the Midlands housed over a thousand of the 11,864 new tech companies established in the UK. The East claimed 422 software development and programming businesses whilst the West invested in a new 5G testbed centre.
In our recent results, potentially the West has become saturated, or overvalued in recent times as salaries have begun to diminish from the initial boom, whilst the East shows great resilience and demand for tech still. An ever growing industry of gaming has strong roots in the Midlands and looks to keep growing as 13% of the UKs games begin here.
Although London will still offer higher salaries for the same job the overall efficiencies are lower. Taking a software developer as an example, in the East Midlands, with an increase of 8.8% you can expect £44,700 at the top end of offers. In London, with a 0.3% increase on 2020, you would be offered £57,500 at the top end.
So for a quick comparison we can use the tool from numbeo.com to calculate an average living cost for a single software developer living alone.
London
Rent - £1700
Living Expenses - £845
Salary - £57,500 / 12 = £4791
£2245 monthly take home
East Midlands - Nottingham
Rent - £620
Living Expenses - £670
Salary - £44,700 / 12 = £3725
£2435 monthly take home
Using the most expensive living conditions of the East Midlands choosing Nottingham for its urban density and prowess for tech startups, we still see an extra £200 per month to do the same job. As a digital job that mostly, if not solely exists online, with minimal need for physical office space there is also potential here for a hybrid of living in the Midlands but working for a job registered in London. This poses the potential question of what do you offer for a salary when they aren't paying for the exuberant prices of London but may still commute into London and work for a London based business?
On a similar note, as more business develops in the Midlands, what are the pros that keep the capital as the center of the tech industry? Or as more people move out has that sentiment shifted? Covid has certainly been a catalyst for these questions and has seemingly driven demand for tech in East Midlands soaring. Although many factors play into final job decisions, from our data it looks like the East Midlands in the short-term are looking to steal those workers from London and elsewhere.