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New research from Stack Overflow points towards a talent shortage caused not just by a shortage of developers, but also from misguided recruiters. In the global report published today, Stack Overflow included more than 56,000 responses from 173 countries.
The biggest group represented in the research was the US, followed by the UK. Stack Overflow paints an interesting picture of the current landscape for developers; with 73 percent either actively looking or ‘open to new opportunities’ for jobs. More developers are moving away from traditional education and self-teaching development skills (1%)
UK developers are some of the highest paid in Europe with average salaries of £45,387
A large percentage (51%) of developers surveyed label recruiters as the ‘most annoying’ part of the job search process; whilst 16 percent said that getting time off work is the biggest drain.
Angela Nyman, Director of International Marketing at Stack Overflow, said: “The majority of UK developers are in fact open to new career opportunities, but at the moment some recruiters simply do not know how to attract and engage with developers, which in this market is a big problem. It’s vital that recruiters are given the right tools to develop their knowledge and understanding of how developers work.”
UK developers are some of the highest paid in Europe with average salaries of £45,387 (rising to £59,758 in London.) As for demographic, the average UK developer is a man in his late twenties with over six years of programming experience. For comparative purposes, developers in Poland and Brazil earn an annual income of €24,980 (£19,510) and €20,877 (£16,314) respectively.
Stack Overflow paints an interesting picture of the current landscape for developers
Although the developer industry remains dominated by males, the UK in particular is showing promise for this changing in the coming years. Only five and a half percent of UK respondents at the moment were female, but data shows a change in culture as twice as many females (24%) as men claimed to have under two years experience.
When it comes to seeking a new job, 63 percent of developer prioritise salary whilst 53 percent look for a good work-life balance and 43 percent look at the firm’s internal culture. Location of the workplace is more important to UK developers than anywhere else in the world (40% vs. 30% globally.)
JavaScript remains the programming language which developers have used most (59%) over the past year, followed by SQL (46%) and C# (38%.) Stack Overflow’s data points towards 26% of respondents preferring to work using Python, if given the chance.
Are you surprised at the results of Stack Overflow’s research? Let us know in the comments.
