2.3 Million by 2020
O2 predicts that these digital jobs will mainly be in London and South-East (47% of predicted jobs). Only 8% is predicted to be available in the North West and East of England.
“It’s promising to see so many jobs will be required to fulfill the UK’s digital potential. But we can’t get complacent – these figures highlight that the economy is nowhere near digital maturity and – worryingly – the opportunities that are being created, are predominantly in the south,” O2 business director, Ben Dowd, said.
This seems to be contradictory to what was discussed in a previous post, where it was stated that more people are working outside of London.
Due to O2’s prediction, the telecommunication company has decided to take action in making more digital skilled jobs available outside of London and have partnered up with the St. Helens council to launch a Digital Community pilot aimed at encouraging young people to take an interest in digital jobs in other location a part London.
To accomplish this O2 will be helping local business in applying digital applications which will help those with digital skills to work in and around St. Helens. The end goal is to increase and promote working outside London.
“Raising our digital profile will not only boost our commercial and employment prospects, but help to connect our communities and deal with issues like social isolation,” said St Helens Council leader Barrie Grunewald.
The success of the partnership should persuade other counties to get involved and currently other northern counties are creating digital jobs. A number of initiatives have been put in place to drive this growth, including a £11m government investment in technology incubators in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield.