The North West has a total IT workforce of 116,871, including:

• 58,836 employees in the IT industry
• 58,035 IT professionals working in other sectors

It is the fourth largest IT workforce and the distribution of the workforce is typical compared to other English regions.   The regional share of UK IT employment is expected to decline over the next ten years.  The region is slightly unusual in that IT manufacture and computer hardware consultancy are large employers for the size of the workforce.

There are 13,000 ICT businesses in the region, with a high proportion being micro-businesses.  10% of companies in the North West report IT vacancies, compared to 17% in Great Britain. 6% of regional companies employing IT professionals reported skills gaps.

The most common IT professional job role in the region is ‘Software Professional’ and ‘Computer Engineer’.  Future skills in systems architecture will be in demand.  IT professionals working with a combination of business and IT understanding will benefit the most from future developments in the sector.

The North West is ranked first of the nine regions for the number of further education IT user qualifications that have been completed.  The region has 24 higher education institutions concentrated in the south of the region with QAA (Quality Assurance Agency) accredited courses in Computing or Computer Science.  It is the third most popular region for graduates who enter the UK IT workforce.

Source: e-skills UK North West regional report 2005a