Digital Jobs in Eastbourne: The Data
By Sarah Cronk
In order to make good decisions, you need good data to work with. Our Chalk network has kindly shared some useful information with us that we’d like to share with you too.
What have we learned? Well, a variety of things relating to the whole of the jobs market.
Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting facts.
The labour market in Eastbourne
As of March 2022, there were 2860 vacancies in Eastbourne.
6.87% of all job postings in East Sussex are within the digital sector, so this should equate to just under 200 digital vacancies locally.
This is good news for those looking for work in the sector, especially as the median advertised salary is £40.4k annually.
However, some of these vacancies might not quite balance out so well in Eastbourne’s favour; businesses in smaller towns are competing for skilled labour with Brighton and London, coastal towns typically have lower education and skills attainment levels and a higher proportion of jobs in hospitality and tourism.
But…
Digital and creative jobs in Eastbourne
Eastbourne is quite the hub.
Again, as of March 2022, 19.1% of digital jobs in Eastbourne are made up of programmers and software professionals. This equates to 505 individuals who earn a median hourly wage of £23.96.
Overall, this works out that there are ~2644 people working in digital in our town.
On top of that, there are 883 people working in the creative sector in Eastbourne, which runs closely side by side with digital when it comes to things like design.
What are employers looking for?
Statistically, based on October 2021 data, the three most advertised occupations within digital in East Sussex were:
Programmers and software development professionals
IT specialist managers
Information technology and telecommunications professionals
Under the same criteria, the three most advertised job titles were:
Software engineers
PHP developers
Software developers
LSIP research shows that many people aren’t aware of the skills they are missing or the skills they need to access different roles or industries. The top skills in these same job postings were:
Software engineering
Software development
Agile Methodology
.NET framework
Microsoft Azure
API
Plus the developer languages CSS, C#, SQL and Javascript.
Presumably, PHP would be highly sought-after too, given the popular job titles.
What other trends are there across Sussex?
Remote working means local people have more choices when looking for roles. The recruitment market is moving quickly, and people are rethinking their priorities and opting for more flexible roles.
This is particularly noticeable in Eastbourne where there is a gap in the skills market at middle to higher management levels in all sectors; such London-based jobs are deemed more attractive as they pay more and are more accessible through remote working.
At Chalk Eastbourne, we say: the bottom line of the payslip isn’t everything. Eastbourne provides so much more in terms of value for money, affordability and quality of life. Check out our previous London vs Eastbourne and Brighton vs Eastbourne comparison data for more on this.
Challenges
As the LSIP research highlights, digital businesses are struggling to recruit for programming and software engineering roles locally. We can attest to that; it’s one of the key reasons we formed Chalk Eastbourne.
Businesses face numerous other issues during this highly active period in recruitment. Finding time and money for staff training is hard when there are increasing operational costs and recovery from the pandemic, especially when coupled with staff shortages and salary inflation.
Some specialist training isn’t available locally, partly due to a lack of regular consultation with businesses about what skills they need, plus there is a stigma around some technical qualifications like T-levels and degree apprenticeships. The accreditation of new courses is also a lengthy process, so what is taught is behind current technology.
As we have heard a lot during the pandemic, the digital divide also means limited access to the internet and technology in deprived communities; low-income households can have restricted access to online education and training. There is also low digital literacy amongst older generations, which limits their access to jobs requiring digital skills, or indeed to the training needed to learn these skills.
Demographics
Those over 50 are leaving paid work across the UK: 63% leaving sooner than expected, 25% not by choice, and 39% would consider returning to work. An increasing number of these are looking into retraining via online learning.
Research also shows that only 1 in 3 entrepreneurs in the UK is female and women are far less represented in high-value businesses such as finance and IT.
To address this, there are many actions that can be taken, including introducing enterprise skills from an earlier age and providing access to relatable female role models. TechResort is already on the case with this locally with their women-only beginners’ coding sessions and high-profile events such as the International Women in Engineering Day on 23rd June can only help this further.
Our conclusions
The data we’ve seen supports our hypotheses: Eastbourne does have digital jobs available, but it’s a struggle to recruit for them due to skills shortages, location, and remote work challenges.
As businesses, we must support education in these areas and across all demographics so that we can fulfil our recruitment needs. Eastbourne has plenty to offer people of all ages, but we all need to do our bit to ensure that education and business are working side-by-side.
With thanks to Eastbourne Chamber of Commerce, Sussex Chamber of Commerce, Skills East Sussex and Sussex Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP) for their support, research and data.
