Number of women in tech dipped last quarter, ONS data shows

The quantity of women in the UK’s know-how sector declined between the primary and second quarters of the 12 months, based on figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

Stats from the ONS recommend that the quantity of women in the trade has seen a decline of 3,000 between January and March of 2023, and April and June of 2023, regardless of the trade as a complete rising in numbers throughout the identical interval.

Andy Heyes, managing director UK&I and Central Europe at international know-how recruiters Harvey Nash, referred to as these numbers “disappointing” and “a concern”, including that the hassle to rent and retain women in tech needs to be ongoing.

“The industry needs to stay committed to driving up the number of women in tech, which is already too low. This quarter’s dip shows that it’s hard to make progress stick,” he added.

The quantity of women in the know-how sector has been slowly climbing over the previous 10 years, with the present share of the sector being women at roughly 22%.

But progress is sluggish, with many boundaries making it tough for women to pursue a profession in the sector – together with a scarcity of seen and accessible function fashions, unconscious bias in hiring, and a scarcity of inclusive tradition in the sector, amongst different issues.

The previous 12 months has seen the quantity of women in tech fluctuate, with a low of 447,000 in the primary quarter of 2022 to a excessive of 532,000 in the third quarter of 2022, based on ONS figures.

The 3,000 particular person drop seen between Q1 and Q2 of this 12 months adopted an approximate 17,000 drop in the quantity of the women in the trade seen between This autumn of last 12 months and Q1 of this 12 months.

Meanwhile, the general tech sector noticed a soar of 85,000 to 1.73 million in the second quarter of the 12 months in comparison with the primary, leaving Heyes asking whether or not warning over spending as a result of financial local weather could have had a disproportionate impact on women in the sector.

The pandemic confirmed an analogous sample, the place women bore the brunt of care wants, making them unable to work as effectively or having to work half time or take day without work.

Hayes defined: “In current months, with companies underneath some monetary stress in a difficult wider economic system, we now have observed a rise in employers specifying better workplace presence and decreasing some points of job flexibility.

“There could be a connection here to the fall in women in tech employment. Businesses need to double down on their efforts to support progressive change, and ensure their working policies don’t prevent them from attracting and retaining talented women.”

Over the previous 12 months, quite than the regular progress the know-how sector displayed in the 12 months prior, there have been a pair of spikes and troughs – from the second quarter of 2022 to the third quarter of 2022, the quantity of individuals in tech grew by 92,000, then dropped by 87,000 the next quarter, dropping once more in the primary quarter of this 12 months.

Despite the fluctuating numbers in the sector, know-how abilities are nonetheless in demand in any respect ranges, based on Harvey Nash.

Hayes stated: “At Harvey Nash, we’re seeing ongoing demand for technology staff across skillsets – in particular, developers, cyber specialists, project managers and business analysts. There is also high demand for transformational CIOs. For organisations struggling to find or make budget for permanent staff, contingent worker demand is rising too.”