London’s Digital Sector
A labour market analysis
Exploring the Mayor of London’s priority sectors.
March 2025
Introduction
The Digital sector is critical in delivering many of London’s long-term strategic goals, such as driving innovation and boosting economic growth. Operating at the cutting edge of the technological frontier, London’s digital sector plays a vital role in keeping the UK competitive and improving productivity across the entire economy.
The purpose of this report is to provide a comprehensive analysis of the sector’s key labour market trends and characteristics, considering a wide range of indicators. By examining the sector’s performance through an array of lenses and comparing it to other industries and regions, this analysis aims to offer valuable insights for strategic planning and support evidence-based policy making across London.
This report is divided into 7 sections, each analysing a different facet of the sector and its workforce.
- People in Work: Explores how many jobs are in the sector and how employment has evolved over time.
- Worker Characteristics: Examines the professional and demographic traits of workers in the sector.
- Job Quality: Provides insights into earnings and the overall quality of jobs within the sector.
- Businesses: Investigates the profile and economic contribution of the sector’s businesses.
- Demand: Analyses how employer recruitment activity for sector-specific roles is changing.
- Skills Needs: Identifies the specific skills that employers within the sector are seeking.
- Education and Training: Reviews the provision of education and training relevant to the sector.
An FAQ guide has also been published alongside this report to help users navigate its contents.
Definitions: All definitions used in this report related to the sector - including industries, occupations and subject areas - are set out in the definitions and additional resources section, at the end of this report.
Data: Links to the raw underlying data are included under each respective chart(s), where the data used is publicly available. The data included in this report refers to the latest annual data available at the time of publication but may vary by data source and is subject to revision.
Section 1: People in Work
How many jobs are in the sector, and how might it change over time?
What’s in this section?
➤ Overview ➤ Headline trends of people working in the sector ➤ Sub-sector composition of employment ➤ Numbers working in key occupations ➤ Industry projections (2025-2035)
Click to expand
Section 1: Overview
This section explores job trends in the digital sector and its sub-industries, highlights key occupations, and examines regional job growth forecasts for the sector.
- Strong employment growth: The number of jobs in London’s digital sector has grown strongly over the past decade, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the sector accounted for 554,300 jobs — a 12.8% increase compared to its 2019 pre-pandemic level – and equivalent to 8.7% of all jobs in the capital.
- Key sub-industries and occupations: The largest sub-industry — computer programming, consultancy and related activities — accounts for 52% of the sector’s employment. Key occupations reflect this, with programmers, software developers, IT architects and IT managers, representing some of the largest roles in terms of job numbers.
- Strong future growth projections: The NFER anticipates steady growth for the sector, forecasting a 0.7% annual increase in employment from 2025 to 2035. This growth rate is higher than that of other industries in London, positioning digital as an important driver of job creation in the coming decade.
Headline job trends in the sector
Job number growth: In 2023, London’s digital (ICT) sector accounted for approximately 554,300 jobs — a 12.8% increase compared to its 2019 pre-COVID level of 491,400. Overall, excluding the temporary shock of the pandemic in 2020, the number of jobs in the sector have increased steadily over time, outpacing the growth in London’s other industries as well as the digital sector in other UK regions, reflecting its status as a dynamic and rapidly growing sector. However, the most recent data suggests a slight slowdown in job growth, emblematic of slowing labour market.
London’s digital dominance: The share of total UK digital jobs located in London has increased steadily since 2010, standing at 34% as of 2023 – more than twice the share of all other industries in the capital. In addition, digital’s share of total jobs in London has also been growing gradually in recent years, standing at around 8.7% as of 2023, more than double the 3.6% in other regions. Combined, these figures suggest that London has a unique economic specialisation in digital activities that have only become more important to its economy and labour market over time.
-
The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a continuous household survey covering the UK, with the aim of providing estimates between censuses of main social and labour market variables at a local area level. The APS is not a stand-alone survey but uses data combined from two waves of the main Labour Force Survey (LFS) with data collected on a local sample boost. It provides a measure of the number of people in work which differs from the concept of jobs, since a person can have more than one job and some jobs may be shared by more than one person. As such, it is the preferred measure of employment and the associated characteristics of workers, including demographics, educational attainment, and occupation.
- Bespoke APS dataset: As part of this research into the Mayor of London’s priority sectors, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published bespoke APS tables for the GLA according to specific sector (SIC) definitions and using the region of work to assign the location of each job rather than the respondents’ region of residence. The number of jobs reported in this analysis using the APS is also the sum of main jobs and second jobs, so the figures may not represent the number of people by industry.
- Increased LFS uncertainty: Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been ongoing challenges with LFS response rates which have caused increased uncertainty and volatility in the production of its more granular labour market statistics. As such, LFS-based labour market statistics are currently considered ‘official statistics in development’ until further review. Because of the increased volatility of LFS figures, estimates should be treated with additional caution and are subject to revision. APS statistics are, however, still considered ‘accredited official statistics’, although uncertainty within the LFS may have some volatility implications for the APS, particularly for detailed breakdowns at regional levels.
- Workforce Jobs (WFJ) is a quarterly measure of jobs in the UK and is the preferred measure of short-term employment change by industry (SIC 1-digit only), since it provides a more reliable industry breakdown than the LFS. The number of jobs measured are the sum of employee jobs, self-employment jobs, government-supported trainees, and His Majesty’s Forces. The estimates are compiled from several sources, including Short Term Employer Surveys (STES), the Quarterly Public Sector Employment Survey (QPSES), and the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Note: Given that WFJ can also display a high degree of volatility quarter-to-quarter, the figures in this report are presented as the annual averages.
- The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) is an annual survey of around 87,000 businesses across the UK. It provides employee and employment estimates at detailed geographic and industrial levels and is considered the primary source for employee estimates at a detailed workplace, regional, and industrial level. In terms of coverage, its employment estimates are the sum of employees and working owners but do not include those self-employed or agency workers who do not pay VAT or PAYE, and so may underestimate the true number of people working in some sectors.
Sub-sector composition
- Dominant sub-industries: In 2023, computer programming, consultancy and related activities accounted almost 52% of employment in the sector, equivalent to 270,000 jobs in London. It has consistently been the largest sub-industry within London’s digital sector by some margin, followed by film, music, and television production, which accounts for 14% of overall sector employment.
People working in key occupations
Understanding the digital sector requires both industry and occupational perspectives. While the industry view focuses on business activities (above), the occupational lens (below) sheds light on the key roles and skills driving the sector.
Programmers and software developers dominate: In terms of job numbers, the largest occupation closely related to the digital sector is programmers and software development professionals. A highly skilled occupation, they alone account for 22% (118,200) of all those people employed in sector-related occupations in London.
Professional roles: Among the other largest occupations are a wide range of professional and managerial roles that typically require higher education qualifications. Arts Officers, Directors and producers, IT business analysts and system designers, IT managers, and graphic multimedia designers, are all among the most prominent digital occupations, with each having a range of cross-sectoral applications in additional to ICT.
While industry-based analysis (Standard Industrial Classification - SIC) is essential to understanding a sector’s labour market performance, granular occupation data (Standard Occupational Classification - SOC) can offer further complimentary insights, particularly in relation to a sector’s skill needs and make-up.
To support the identification of specific sector-relevant SOC 4-digit occupations for each of the Mayor’s priority sectors, GLA Economics used Lightcast’s ‘staffing pattern matrix’ - which combines BRES and LFS microdata to produce an occupational make-up of an industry. GLA Economics then selected those occupations that were either found to be highly concentrated in, or specific to, that sector. For example, the vast majority of carpenters are identified as working in construction industries.
In doing this, more general occupations - such as sales, business administration and many customer service roles - which are typically employed in large numbers across London’s industries were excluded from the analysis. It should be noted however, that any given occupation may be employed in a range of sectors, and as such, an occupation included in one sector (e.g. creative) may also be relevant to another (e.g. construction). Therefore there are likely to be some occupational overlaps between priority sector areas in terms of key occupations.
The occupations identified as part of this exercise are the same as those used to employer demand and skills needs from job postings in Section 5 and Section 6 of this report.
The full list of sector-relevant SOC occupations is also available in the definitions and additional resources section, at the end of this report.
Projected change in industry job numbers (2025 - 2035)
Strong growth projected: According to the latest projections from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and their Skills Imperative 2035 research, digital (ICT) employment in London is expected to experience strong growth. Job numbers in the digital sector are expected to grow by an average of 0.7% annually between 2025 and 2035, adding around 37,000 jobs over this period. This suggests that approximately 1 in every 8 new jobs created during this time will be in digital.
Faster than average: This anticipated growth exceeds the 0.5% average annual growth forecast for all other industries in London, highlighting the digital sector’s important role in driving new employment opportunities across the capital.
However, as with all projection models, there is a considerable degree of inherent uncertainty and therefore models which use alternative assumptions - such as by GLA Economics (2022) - may indicate considerably different trends.
The labour market projections produced by Institute for Employment Research (IER) and Cambridge Econometrics (CE) for The Skills Imperative 2035 are inherently uncertain due to the complexities of forecasting long-term trends. Developed in 2021/22, they try to account for existing technological and environmental trends. However, they can not capture unforeseen future events and were created during a period of considerable economic uncertainty following Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic. As forecasting involves judgment and assumptions, uncertainties increase over longer timeframes, particularly at local levels. Therefore, these projections should not be used for precise workforce planning but rather as broad benchmarks to inform policy and strategic discussions.
For more information see General Guidelines for The Skills Imperative 2035: Occupational Outlook – Long-run employment prospects for the UK.
Section 2: Worker Characteristics
What are the professional and demographic characteristics of those working in the sector?
What’s in this section?
➤ Overview ➤ Demographics (incl. detailed breakdowns) ➤ Types of occupations in the sector ➤ Highest level of educational attainment ➤ Employment status (employee vs. self-employment) ➤ Employee type (full-time vs. part-time) ➤ Geographic distribution (sub-regional partnerships)
Click to expand
Section 2: Overview
Demographic characteristics: The digital workforce remains youthful, male-dominated, majority white, and employs marginally fewer people with a disability than the rest of London’s economy.
Reliance on foreign-born workers: London’s digital sector is reliant on foreign-born labour, with 13% of workers from the EU and a further 29% from the rest of the world. This dependence has steadily grown over time, particularly for workers from non-EU countries, post-Brexit.
Professionals dominate: Professional workers make up 48% of the digital industry jobs in London in 2023, compared to 32% in all other industries.
Higher education and qualification levels: Digital sector workers in London are considerably more likely to hold a degree (79%) compared to other industries (62%).
Lower prevalence of self-employment: Self-employment is slightly lower in the digital sector, with 15% of workers being self-employed, compared to 18% across other London industries.
Typically, in full-time positions: 91% of workers in the digital sector are employed in full-time positions compared to 73% in all other industries in London.
Demographic characteristics
Detailed demographic breakdowns
- A youthful workforce: Despite an aging workforce overall, the digital sector in London remains young. The proportion of young employees (16-29) has remained broadly stable around 20%-23% over recent years and has consistently outnumbered those workers in the older age group (50+).
- Benchmark comparison: In comparison to other industries in London, digital employs more young people (23% vs. 20%). Similarly, when compared to the digital sector in other regions of the UK, London also has a younger age profile, reflecting the capital's younger demographics overall (20% vs. 27% for older workers).
Broad occupational composition of industry
Professional occupations dominate: Professional occupations accounted for 48% of digital jobs in London in 2023, compared to 32% across all other industries in the capital.
Increasing professionalisation: The share of jobs accounted for managers, directors, and senior officials has been steadily growing in the digital industry since 2010, reaching close to 17% as of 2023. At the same time, the share of jobs for associate professional and technical occupations has been declining. These trends suggest that the digital sector in London is becoming even further highly skilled professional-oriented over time.
London vs. UK comparison: The occupational mix in London’s digital sector is broadly similar to the rest of the UK, though London has more managerial workers and fewer skilled trades (IT equipment installers, etc.) compared to other UK regions.
Highest level of educational attainment
Rising educational attainment: London’s digital workforce has become increasingly educated over time, with the share of workers holding a degree or equivalent rising from around 70% in the early 2010’s to almost 79% as of 2023.
Above the London average: Digital workers in London are much more likely to hold degree-level qualifications than those in other industries. In 2023, 79% of digital sector job holders had a degree as their highest qualification, compared to 62% across all industries in London. This gap reflects the sector’s heavy reliance on professional occupations, which typically require advanced higher education qualifications.
London vs. other UK regions: Compared to the rest of the UK, London’s digital workforce is more highly educated, with almost 61% of workers holding a degree or equivalent across other UK regions. This difference may highlight London’s strength in the professional and managerial aspects of the sector.
Highest level of education groupings:
Degree or equivalent: Includes higher education degrees such a Bachelor’s Degree, Master’s Degree, DPhil/PhD and Degree level Apprenticeships (RQF level 6+ qualifications).
Higher Education: Includes higher vocational qualifications such as Higher National Diplomas / Certificates (HND/HNC) and Foundational Degrees (RQF level 5 qualifications).
GCE, A-levels or equivalent: Includes A-levels or equivalent, AS-levels, International Baccalaureate, and Advanced/Higher level Apprenticeships (RQF level 3-4 qualifications).
GCSE grades A*-C or equivalent: Includes O-Level/GCSE Grades A*-C and equivalents, and Intermediate Apprenticeships (RQF level 2 qualifications).
Other qualifications: GCSE < Grade C and equivalents, Entry-level Qualifications, Key / Core / Essential/ Functional Skills and Other qualifications (RQF level 1 and below qualifications).
No qualification: No qualification recorded.
Further information on the specific qualifications included in each education grouping can be found here (pg.336-339) using the mapping here (pg.26).
Employment status
Lower prevalence of self-employment: In London’s digital sector, 15% of workers are self-employed as of 2023, slightly lower than the 18% average across all other industries in the capital. While self-employment often comes with less job security and limited benefits compared to full-time employment, it can offer greater flexibility in work hours – which may partly explain the recent uptick observed.
London vs. other UK regions: Self-employment is slightly more prevalent in London’s digital sector compared to the rest of the UK, where 13% of digital workers are self-employed.
Employee type
High prevalence of full-time employment: 91% of workers in London’s digital sector are in full-time positions, with trends remaining largely stable over time.
Comparison with other industries: The share of full-time employees in the digital sector is considerably more than that of other industries in London (73%).
London vs. other UK regions: When compared to the digital sector in other UK regions, London is also higher, with full-time employment in digital just around 85% outside the capital.
Geographic distribution
Central London dominance: Approximately 54% of digital jobs in London are located within the Central London Forward sub-regional partnership (SRP). Since at least 2010, this area has consistently accounted for over half of the sector’s jobs, although its share has declined sharply from the 70%+ recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Business location concentration: The high concentration of digital jobs in Central London aligns with the fact that many businesses are registered or headquartered in this area.
Sub-regional employment concentration: From a sub-regional employment perspective, the digital sector represented the largest share of total jobs in the South London Partnership SRP, accounting for 13% of total jobs in the area. In contrast, the Local London SRP had the lowest share at 7%. Despite having the highest number of digital jobs, Central London Forward’s share constituted only 8% of total jobs within its SRP area.
While interpreting these findings, it is important to remember that many of the jobs located within London may be held by people who reside outside of the capital, or outside of the SRP in which their workplace is located.
The City of London and each of London’s 32 boroughs are members of one of four sub-regional partnerships (SRPs) in the capital. These SRPs serve a vital administrative function within local government by convening key stakeholders to collaboratively address London’s strategic economic and social issues, including skills, employment, infrastructure, and land use.
London’s Four SRPs:Section 3: Job Quality
What are the earnings and quality of jobs in the sector?
What’s in this section?
➤ Overview ➤ Hourly industry earnings ➤ Annual advertised salaries for key occupations ➤ Additional job quality indicators
Click to expand
Section 3: Overview
Typically well-paid and steady earnings growth: Median nominal hourly earnings in London’s digital (ICT) industry have steadily increased since 2014, reaching £28.29 as of 2024, higher than both the national average for the sector and broadly the median earnings across all industries in London. Latest data suggests that nominal earnings growth has kept up with price inflation in recent years resulting in a real terms pay gains.
Higher salaries for professional roles: Derived from job postings, managerial and professional digital occupations – such as software developers IT managers and directors – tend to command the highest advertised salaries. Overall, digital-related roles across the board offer advertised salaries well above the London Living Wage, aligning with industry-level data.
Positive job quality indicators: London’s digital sector performs relatively well on key job quality measures, including lower levels of low pay, opportunities for progression and zero-hour contracts compared to other industries in the capital.
Challenges with working hours, unpaid overtime, and decision involvement: The sector faces challenges in both providing satisfactory working hours for its workers and involving them in company decision-making processes, with London employees reporting relatively high levels of dissatisfaction on these job quality metrics.
Earnings and advertised salaries
Industry earnings
Steady earnings growth: Median nominal hourly earnings in London’s digital (ICT) industry have grown gradually since 2014, reaching £28.29 per hour in 2024.
Widening earnings distribution: Beyond the median (50th percentile), the range (the gap between the 25th and 75th percentiles) has also begun to widen marginally, suggesting earnings are becoming more skewed toward higher earning professionals.
Higher than national and London averages: Median earnings in London’s digital sector are considerably higher than both the UK digital average (£23.96) and overall median earnings in London across all industries (£21.87).
Earnings variation by occupation: While overall earnings in the digital sector are relatively high, there is likely significant variation by specific occupation, with some roles earning considerably more than others (see section below).
Exceeding inflation: When adjusted for inflation, median real earnings in London’s digital sector as of 2024 have grown by approximately 8.3% compared to 2015. This increase exceeds the 5.6% real wage growth observed across all industries in London over the period. Similar trends are seen for the digital industries in the UK overall, which have also seen real-term gains.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), is the most comprehensive source of information on the structure and distribution of earnings in the UK. ASHE provides information about the levels, distribution and make-up of gross earnings and paid hours worked for employees in all industries and occupations. The ASHE is based on employer responses for a 1% sample of employee jobs, using HM Revenue and Customs Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records to identify individuals’ current employers. The ASHE does not cover the self-employed nor does it cover employees not paid during the reference period.
Owing to the way the ASHE data is structured, it has not been possible to construct estimates of median earnings for the sector in all other UK regions, nor has it been possible to construct a comparison to all other industries in London. As such the benchmark comparisons presented are for the sector in the UK as a whole, and for all London industries as a whole.
ASHE data for the latest year in the series is considered provisional and will be revised in a future ONS release.
Median advertised salaries (occupations)
Extracting median advertised salaries from job postings offers valuable insights into market rates for sector occupations in London, providing data not available from other sources, though it comes with important caveats (see notes).
High salaries for digital occupations – particularly professional: Professional and managerial occupations in digital – such as IT directors, programmers and software developers, and, IT business analysts and architects – command amongst the highest advertised salaries.
Above LLW: Encouragingly, all of the most recruited occupations related to the digital sector, including various IT customer support, technician, and creative roles had advertised salaries well above the London Living Wage (LLW), reflecting the industry’s generally high earnings.
Median advertised salaries are a useful metric to understand market rates, but have several important caveats:
Approximately 40% of job postings in London contain salary information, although there is significant variation between different occupational groups and, therefore, figures may not be fully representative of an occupation’s true median earnings. As such, median advertised salary data should be interpreted cautiously.
Where advertised salary is presented in a job description as an hourly wage, it is converted, by Lightcast, to an annual gross full-time equivalent salary figure.
Similarly, while advertised salary figures are presented as full-time equivalent, it is important to note that actual hours worked may differ.
Job quality indicators
To support the analysis and measurement of job quality and good work in London, the ONS have produced regional sector specific indicator estimates, building upon their broader 2021 publication.
Relatively strong performance related to pay and security: Compared to all other industries in London, the digital sector performs relatively well on several key indicators of job quality, including: having a lower incidence of low pay, more opportunities for progression, and fewer zero-hour contracts, than among other industries in London.
Unsatisfactory work hours and unpaid overtime: However, the sector performs less favourably in other areas with digital workers expressing some dissatisfaction with working hours (underemployment), in particular, compared to digital workers in other UK regions.
Not feeling involved in decisions: The most significant issue, both for the digital sector and across all industries in London, is the widespread feeling among workers that they lack involvement (or feeling represented) in their employer’s decision-making processes.
Section 4: Businesses
What are the characteristics and contribution of businesses in the sector?
What’s in this section?
➤ Overview ➤ Trends in the number of registered enterprises ➤ Industry output (Gross Value Added)
Click to expand
Section 4: Overview
Significant role in London’s economy: In 2024, London’s digital (ICT) industries included 61,700 enterprises, making up 11.6% of all businesses. Similar to overall job trends, this is substantially higher than the 5.7% share of firms seen in other UK regions, and underscores digital’s contribution to the capital’s economy.
Fewer firms: The number of digital enterprises in London declined in the years post the COVID-19 pandemic, similar to elsewhere in the UK suggesting wider sector specific shifts.
The dominance of micro-enterprises: Micro-enterprises (0-9 employees) dominate the sector’s make-up, accounting for 91.2% of digital businesses, just higher than the 90% in other industries.
Important GVA contribution: The digital sector contributed £60.5 billion to London’s economy in 2022, representing 12.9% of the capital’s total Gross Value Added (GVA). As a sector, digital’s output levels have grown much faster than many other industries in London over the past decade, and have continued to grow strongly in the years following the pandemic.
Registered enterprises in the sector
Headline trends in the number of sector businesses
Digital enterprises in London: In 2024, London’s digital (ICT) sector consisted of almost 61,700 enterprises, representing 11.6% of all businesses in the capital.
Comparison to other UK regions: London’s share of digital enterprises (11.6%) is higher than the 5.7% seen across other UK regions, consistent with London’s higher digital employment shares and overall specialisation in technology and professional services.
Sector-wide enterprise numbers declining: The number of digital enterprises in London has declined by 15% since 2020, with similar trends seen elsewhere in the UK suggesting wider sector shifts at play. This is potentially the result of an increase in mergers and aquisitions within the sector.
Enterprise composition
Sub-industry composition: Similar to overall job numbers, the largest sub-industry in terms of enterprise numbers within the sector as of 2024 was computer programming activities, accounting for 60% of firms. This was followed by film, music, and television production (25%), which has seen notable growth in its share since the pandemic.
The dominance of micro-enterprises: Micro-enterprises (0-9 employees) dominate London’s digital sector, accounting for 91.2% of all digital enterprises – a slightly higher share than the 90% seen across other industries in the capital. This dominance likely reflects the sectors dynamism and high number of innovative start-ups typical of technologically focused industries.
Sector Output: Gross Value Added (GVA)
An analysis of Gross Value Added (GVA) — a measure of the value generated by producing goods and services — provides insights into the contribution that the digital (ICT) industry makes to London’s local economy.
Headline trends in sector GVA
Significant contribution: The digital sector makes a sizable contribution to London’s economy, accounting for £60.5 billion — or 12.9% — of the capital’s total GVA as of 2022.
Strong performance: Relative to other industries in London, the digital sector’s output levels have grown strongly since 2010. Digital also fared well during the pandemic, in large part due the nature of the sector which was able to operate well even under rolling public health restrictions, as well as increased demand for its services. Moreover, in the years following the sector’s GVA has continued to grow strongly reaching 16% above its pre-pandemic level as of 2022.
Declining London concentration: In 2010, London’s digital sector contributed 50% of the UK’s total digital-related GVA output. However, this share has been steadily falling since this time and as of 2022, stands around 40%. This illustrates that – while London remains uniquely critical to the UK’s overall digital performance – digital activity in other regions has been increasing over the years, particularly in England’s North West and Yorkshire.
Sub-industry composition of output
- Computer programming and consultancy: In 2022, the computer programming and consultancy sub-industry accounted for close to 38% of the digital sector’s total GVA, making it the largest contributor by far. This is followed by music, film and television production at 18% and telecommunications at almost 16%, the latter of which has seen strong growth over the past decade.
Section 6: Skill Needs
What specific skills are employers seeking?
What’s in this section?
➤ Overview ➤ Top skills in demand for specific occupations ➤ Digital skill needs
Click to expand
Section 6: Overview
Unique and shifting skillsets: Every occupation has its own unique skill requirements that are constantly evolving. However, this is particularly the case in the digital sector given its focus on developing new cutting-edge technologies and processes.
Digital skills are the foundation of all digital roles: Expertise in digital skills is foundational to digital occupations and as such demand for these skills is naturally high within all roles. 89% of digital occupation job postings explicitly require at least one digital skill, 50 percentage points higher than the 39% seen across all other occupations in London.
Variability in digital skill needs by occupation: While all digital occupations require digital skills, the specific expertise sought varies significantly across digital roles. Considered in aggregate however, skills areas such as programming languages, cloud computing and data analysis are all among the most sought after.
Skills in demand for key occupations
Assessing sector-related skills requirements at the detailed occupational level is essential because skill needs vary significantly between roles. Each occupation within a sector requires distinct competencies, and understanding these differences enables more targeted training and workforce development that aligns with the specific and evolving demands of each job.
This section uses job posting data to identify the skills in demand for the most recruited digital-related occupations in London. The analysis highlights the most sought-after common/transferable skills, as well as the specialised/technical skills critical to each role, and examines how their prevalence in job postings has shifted since the pre-pandemic period.
Common Skills are prevalent and transferable across many different occupations and industries, including both personal attributes and learned skills. (e.g. ’Communication or ‘Problem solving’). These include soft skills, human skills, and general competencies.
Specialized Skills are typically only required within a subset of occupations or equip one to perform a specific task (such as ‘Econometrics’ or ‘Lifeguarding’). These are sometimes known as technical skills or hard skills.
More information is available at Lightcast’s skills taxonomy.
A thorough understanding of the skills, qualifications, and competencies that define each occupation, and distinguish them from one another, is essential for policymakers, educators, and employers alike. It allows them to identify similar job roles based on their shared skillsets, and, in doing so, enables them to start to build occupational career pathways. These not only inform the sector’s overall workforce development strategy but also equip individuals with the knowledge they need to better understand and progress their careers.
In addition to the skills analysis in this report, tools such as the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) occupational maps, the UK Careers Service’s career explorer and the U.S. O*NET occupational descriptions also provide valuable frameworks for understanding specific role requirements, and what is required to transition between them.
Digital skills
Tracking and analysing the prevalence of digital skill demand in the labour market is important given its cross-cutting nature and potential to drive innovation and productivity across all sectors. As technology continues to transform the nature of work, understanding the demand for these skills will ensure that the workforce can adapt to evolving job requirements as they arise.
Digital skills critical to digital roles: Demand for digital skills in occupations related to the digital sector are naturally critical. Currently, 89% of job postings for digital-related occupations explicitly require at least one digital skill – significantly more than the 39% seen across all other occupations in London. Given their fundamental reliance on digital skills, there has also been limited change in their demand for them in recent years (with the exception of arts officers, directors and producers). Fluctuations in overall sector demand for digital skills can depend on changes in the underlying occupational mix, as well as the variable levels of skill detail provided by employers in job postings.
Most in-demand digital skills: The most sought-after digital skills across digital sector occupations include a wide variety of programming languages (Python, SQL, JavaScript), cloud computing services (Azure, AWS) and computer science, among others. However, there is significant variability in digital skill needs by occupation.
Building upon Lightcast’s own definition of ‘software’ skills, GLA Economics has further developed and expanded this definition using Lightcast’s skills taxonomy. Through this process, GLA Economics have identified over 13,000 specific ‘digital’ skills, or skills that closely imply digital or software expertise.
This granular definition can help provide insights into the demand for digital skills within the sector in London. However, it is unlikely to offer a complete picture of digital skill needs. Some relevant digital skills may not yet have been identified, while in other roles digital expertise may be implicitly inferred rather than explicitly stated. As such, this analysis should be considered only indicative of demand within the sector and its related occupations. It is also important to note that changes in the underlying occupational makeup of the sector over time may also affect the observed demand for digital expertise.
GLA Economics’ definition of digital skills remains experimental and is constantly being refined to reflect its rapidly evolving nature. As such, prevalence estimates may fluctuate with each iteration of this release.
The rapid development of digital technologies — such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and advanced robotics — is expected to bring significant changes to the labour market. These advancements may automate routine tasks and reshape the nature of some occupations, with impacts anticipated to vary by sector and skill level. Roles requiring critical thinking, creativity, and specialised expertise are likely to adapt, while those focused on repetitive tasks may face greater challenges. Experimental analysis by the ONS on automation (2019) and DfE on AI (2023) highlights differing levels of exposure across occupations.
While the rapid speed of technological change means the overall impact of these new technologies remains uncertain, it emphasises the importance of fostering adaptable skills and supporting lifelong learning that helps individuals and organisations respond effectively to change.
Definitions and Resources
Have a question or some feedback?
Please contact Jeff Dwan-O’Reilly or Monet Durieux at GLA Economics.
