Tech is driving Manchester’s new economic revolution
Manchester is second only to the capital when it comes leading the way on the newer and emerging sectors that are driving the global technology economies of the 21st Century.
That was one of the headline findings of the 2019 UK Digital Technology Census, which was published earlier this year.
And in a report published today it is claimed Manchester’s tech sector had more than 164,000 job openings during 2018.
According to Tech Nation’s Bright Tech Future Jobs and Skills report, Manchester already employs 100,000 workers in the digital economy but also has around 164,000 vacancies for both workers with tech skills and non-tech skills.
New figures from Tech Nation and Dealroom.co for the Digital Economy Council also show that tech companies in the city have raised £430m from investors in the year to date.
Manchester’s tech businesses achieved a combined turnover of £3.2bn last year, according to Tech Nation and five of the UK’s unicorns hail from Manchester, including The Hut Group, Boohoo, AO.com, Autotrader and Onthebeach.com – putting the city on a par with Amsterdam for creating fast-growing tech businesses.
Digital Secretary, Nicky Morgan, said: “Manchester’s tech sector is thriving. It has produced five billion dollar tech ‘unicorns’, such as fashion retailer Boohoo and online household appliances store AO.com, which are helping to create jobs and drive growth in the city.
“I am delighted that some of the country’s best talent is coming together to discuss how we can help further strengthen the UK’s reputation as Europe’s leading tech player.”
Created by The Data City organisation, the census revealed that the number of digital technology companies in the UK was more than 25 per cent larger than currently believed.
The data showed that companies previously classified only as, for example, manufacturing are now embracing new technologies such as IoT, AI and fintech – but until now, this has not been reflected in statistics.
Greater Manchester also has particular strengths in AI and data, E-commerce, fintech, gaming and medtech, according to the study.
Its authors say the census” provides a clearer than ever before picture of the UK innovation landscape”, to help inform business and public sector decision-making.
Alex Craven, co-founder of The Data City, says: “The 2019 Digital Technologies Census provides the clearest picture yet of the digital technology landscape in the UK.
“Using data from Companies House and individual businesses’ own websites it shows how active the community is across eight main sectors, and allows comparison between cities and regions.”
The work followed on from an earlier project to help Greater Manchester comprehensively map its technology sector.
Midas, Manchester’s Inward Investment Agency, commissioned The Data City to benchmark the region’s emerging technology capabilities against other areas in the UK.
Commenting on that project Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “Greater Manchester is the UK’s leading digital city-region and an emerging player on the world stage.
“This is no accident – through our crowdsourced digital strategy we’re supporting businesses to innovate and thrive which makes us attractive to both start-ups and global companies.
“We have the infrastructure, secure digital environments, and the talent pipeline to make things happen. This puts us in the perfect position to trial new technologies: we’re agile enough to get up and running quickly, but large enough to test at scale before rolling out pilots UK-wide.”
The UK top ten cities overall are:
London
Manchester
Reading
Brighton
Milton Keynes
Birmingham
Leeds
Bristol
Edinburgh
Glasgow
