The UK Struggles to Fill FinTech Positions

As the global FinTech hub you would think that the U.K. has no problem when it comes to recruiting new talent for its financial technology sector. Yet, it seems that the country is experiencing a skills shortage that is seeing many jobs going unfilled.

In a report from Business Insider, it found data from one of the world’s biggest job listing sites, Indeed.com, showed that the hardest jobs to fill are mechanical and engineering projects managers. According to the data, 30.8 percent of the positions remain unfilled after two months.

The remaining nine jobs that are hard to fill include:

• Digital project manager = 28.3 percent
• Architectural technician = 27 percent
• Pricing analyst = 26 percent
• Sharepoint developer = 25.4 percent
• Financial analyst = 25.1 percent
• Financial reporting manager = 24.6 percent
• Senior associate = 24.5 percent
• Software engineer = 23 percent
• Developer = 21.8 percent.

Bad News for the UK

This news is not going to do much to boost confidence in the U.K. particularly in its booming financial technology market. Since the Brexit result last June, speculation has been high as to how the U.K. will do once it removes itself from the European Union (EU) in what many believe will be a hard Brexit.

Furthermore, big banks have already threatened to move British jobs overseas, which could potentially cripple the British economy with jobs remaining unfilled for longer.

FinTech Rise and Fall in the UK

Reports from 2016 showed that FinTech funding in the nation fell by 33 percent. In 2015, venture capital funding amounted to $1.2 billion; however, in 2016, this fell to $783 million, which was largely attributed to the uncertainty circulating Brexit as well as geo political and macro-economic factors.

Notably, U.K. funding is reported to have bounced back in Q4 2016.

Of course, until the U.K. officially leaves the EU no one knows exactly how Britain is going to be. It may stunt the growth of the industry or it may provide the sector with the boost it needs to continue flourishing in what is a competitive market.

And yet, the fact that there are positions within the market that are remaining unfilled after 60 days could potentially provide some indication as to what Britain’s FinTech sector can expect once it leaves the EU, but possibly on a greater scale.

Despite being the global FinTech hub more clearly needs to be done to fill FinTech positions in the U.K. job market and improve its standing long after it removes itself from the European Union. Only time will tell how successful this is.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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