Pandemic drives growth in tech industry salaries

Pandemic drives growth in tech industry salaries

Salaries across the technology industry leapt by 12% last year on average, outstripping average pay rises of 5%, according to a new report.

The Xcede salary guide, set to launch on Monday (29 March), looks at trends in the data, digital, and technology sectors over the past year.

It revealed that average senior data salaries rose by 10% from the previous year, with entry-level wages increasing by 13%, driven by rising demand for data skills during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

“Ongoing growth in this field means data skills will remain in high demand, with knowledge and experience of product analytics, machine learning, and data science particularly sought after in 2021,” the report said.

The UK’s digital tech sector also continued to see strong growth in 2020, according to the guide. However, the pandemic had less impact on tech salary rates when compared to the data sector, demonstrated by a year-on-year increase in average pay of 4% – although product management skills were in particularly high demand, with top salaries seeing a rise of 15% from 2019.

In the UK technology sector demand for specialist roles grew in 2020 as companies accelerated digital transformation and evolved business models in response to the pandemic, the report found. Back-end developers were particularly sought-after across a range of industries, with permanent salaries for lead-level roles jumping by 7%.

The guide also found that omnichannel retail, proptech, regtech, cyber security and fintech were the largest growth industries in 2020, while the areas which saw the largest increase in demand were machine learning, product management, back-end software development, product and service design, and product analytics.

Julian Vecchio, group managing director, Xcede, said: “2020 was a year that will shape the way we work for years to come. If there is anything that this year’s salary guide illustrates, it is that the core specialisms we work across–data, digital, and technology–are extremely resilient. They have proved to remain buoyant in very challenging times.”