Three quarters of UK tech pros are ready to leave their jobs

Despite layoff trend, IT staff seek mobility over security

More than three quarters (77 percent) of UK tech workers are unhappy with their jobs and have looked for another one in the past six months, according to a study of 1,000-plus professionals.

A four-day work week would suit 83 percent of tech talent, one in five are ready to leave their jobs as soon as possible, and only 11 percent are happy to stay in their current role, the survey found.

The research from technology talent hub hackajob is in keeping with research from Gartner earlier this year that found that despite widespread tech sector layoffs, there was still a dire shortage of skills and employers were being forced to compete to secure the right people in their teams.

In a statement, hackajob CEO Mark Chaffey said: "The gap between what companies are offering and what tech workers want is causing unrest at a time when there's no shortage of alternative job openings out there.

"There are still plenty of organizations hiring, and now many more people are searching for new roles. Whilst salary will always be key to any tech job seeker, it is crucial that companies look outside of just remuneration in order to retain the tech talent they already have."

The report also found that after pay (29 percent), tech workers were most attracted to a role and organization by its overall culture (15 percent) and mission (13 percent).

Last month the analyst found demand for technology talent still significantly exceeds supply. According to a Gartner survey of around 18,000 employees conducted in November and December 2022, 86 percent of CIOs reported more competition for qualified candidates and 73 percent were worried about IT talent attrition.

During the time of the survey, Meta, Google, and Salesforce had already started laying off staff. Since the beginning of 2023, 570 tech companies have chopped around 168,000 employees, according to tracker website Layoffs.fyi.

However, tech skills in application development, AI and machine learning, software engineering (Python specifically), and enterprise cloud architecture remained hard to find, Mbula Schoen, Gartner senior director and analyst, told The Register. ®