Tech workers in London are among the highest paid and most experienced in the world, according to a study.
An analysis of more than 56,000 users of online developer community Stack Overflow revealed that the average experience of IT programmers in London stood at 7.8 years, compared to 6.5 years for the global developer workforce.
The report, released by Stack Overflow and London & Partners, showed that the experience held by London’s IT professionals is higher than that of developers working in other European tech hubs such as Stockholm, Berlin and Paris.
The report said London has been attracting many developers due to competitive salaries offered by the IT companies in the city. The average annual salary earned by IT employees in London is £55,460, which is higher than salaries offered in Dublin, Berlin and Madrid.
However, IT developers in London still earn less than their counterparts in the US, where the average salary is £66,400.
Stack Overflow director of marketing Alexa Scordato said: "Developers are literally writing the script to our future. Every line of code they write has the potential to impact our lives. That’s why it’s so important to recognise the value of technical talent, and treat developers with the respect they deserve."
The report also found London’s tech developers are more satisfied with their jobs compared to workers across the rest of the UK. The percentage of developers who are content with their jobs in London stood at 31.56% compared with the UK average of 30.98%.
Tech teams in London were also found to display better gender diversity, with more than a third of the surveyed participants revealing that they work with two or more women on their development teams.
52% of the survey’s respondents completely agreed that diversity in the workplace is important, which was found to be 6% higher than the national average.
Passion Capital partner and Mayor of London Technology Ambassador Eileen Burbidge said: "London’s talent pool is fuelling the growth of the city’s digital ecosystem. With more software developers than New York and San Francisco, London has emerged as a leading centre in areas such as fintech and cyber security.
"As a truly international city, London is one of the world’s most diverse tech hubs and it is refreshing that we are seeing more programmers coming into the ecosystem — male and female alike
"London’s booming fintech sector offers strong employment opportunities for developers. According to separate research from EY, Britain’s fintech ecosystem ranked higher than New York and California and currently employs around 61,000 workers across the UK."
Morgan McKinley’s 2016 IT Salary Guide, released last month, showed an increase in cyber threats has resulted in a sharp rise in demand for cyber security experts in London.
The study found that the number of technology jobs in London went up by nearly 30% between 2010 and 2015 due to healthy investment flows, with IT firms working on big data, ad tech and fintech recruiting in large numbers.
The widening digital skills gap in the UK is, however, proving beneficial for overseas professionals, particularly those from Central and Eastern Europe.
In the London area, the company has found a shortage in key skills such as HTML5, CSS, Python, Java, JavaScript, AngularJS, R, Hadoop, Spark, MongoDB and AWS.
TransferWise VP Engineering Harsh Sinha said: "Hiring the right people is crucial to the success of any company, but especially when you’re a high-growth business expanding internationally at speed. Finding great developers is particularly tough. But there’s a strong emerging developer community in London."
