Budget Schmudget, UK Tech and IT industry will be fine says recruiter

Budget cuts unveiled today will cost half a million jobs across the UK but Tech and IT workers won’t want for jobs says the head of a IT recruitment service.

Cuts in Civil Service jobs of 490,000 over 4 years will hit IT departments across the public sector and could see 6,125 IT workers losing their jobs every year.

But there are several reasons why the Tech sector will be able to weather the storm.

One is that the budget cuts may actually increase demand for smart tech in government departments. The BBC states that HM Revenue and Customs will achieve its cut of 15% “through the better use of new technology and greater efficiency”. Providing that new technology will give more contracts to private tech companies. PCs don’t need pensions, so getting better technology is an attractive way to make efficiency savings for all government departments.

And even if the balance of public sector spending on technology falls, Paul Winchester, the managing director of IT and telecoms recruiter Greythorn said that the booming private sector could pick up the slack.

“When it comes to IT and telecoms, the private sector will easily make up the jobs lost in the public sector. The private sector job market is in rude health and the industry is big enough to take care of itself. There is no reason to imagine the pace of consolidation envisaged in the Budget will undermine the recovery.”

He predicted that 6,125 IT professionals a year would lose their jobs in the government, but

“…if the growth experienced in the first three quarters of this year continues, the private sector will hire a further 7,500 IT professionals in the fourth quarter of 2010 alone. Q3 2010 saw a 12% year-on-year increase in the number of roles we had on our books. So the private sector should be more than capable of finding jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, and the redeployment of people to more productive activities will improve economic performance, and in turn generate more employment opportunities.”

Despite a feared dip in consumer demand and international competition for IT jobs, he sounds bullish. We hope he’s right.