Female workforce in UK tech sector taking biggest hit from layoffs, research finds

UK female tech employees have gone down to 20.1 per cent from 22.7 per cent in 2021

Job losses in the UK tech sector have fallen disproportionately on women, according to an analysis of National Statistics data.

At the same time, however, the overall size of the UK tech workforce continued to grow, despite layoffs in the tech sector beginning in the Autumn of 2022.

According to Integro Accounting who commissioned the data analysis, the proportion of employees in the UK tech sector who are female has fallen for the first time in five years, from 22.7 per cent in 2021 to 20.1 per cent in 2022.

The UK tech sector successfully increased the percentage of female employees every year from 2018 to 2021.

The proportion of tech contractors who are female also declined from 16.8 per cent in 2021 to 12.1 per cent in 2022.

The data also shows that the number of female tech employees fell in absolute terms between 2021 and 2022 from 384,025 to 359,154, a decline of 6.5 per cent in a single year.

Meanwhile the number of male tech employees continued to rise between 2021 and 2022, from 1.3 million to 1.4 million, an increase of 8.6 per cent.

Overall, the number of tech workers (both employees and contractors) increased by 4.1 per cent from 1.8 million in 2021 to 1.9 million in 2022.

The fall in female representation due to layoffs mirrors the trend seen during the pandemic where female tech workers were disproportionately placed on furlough under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, which capped pay at a maximum of 80 per cent or £2,500 per month.

Between 2020 and 2021 the median gender pay gap for IT professionals in the UK widened from 10.9 per cent to 12.9 per cent meaning female tech workers were being paid on average 12.9 per cent less than their male co-workers.

Christian Hickmott, managing director of Integro Accounting, said: "The UK tech sector has made great strides in boosting female representation in recent years so it is disappointing to see much of that progress undone during the recent round of tech layoffs.

"Women tend to be more highly concentrated in part-time and non-technical roles, which are often the first to go during a downturn.

"Women are less likely to be represented in senior roles, which in turn are less likely to be targeted for redundancies.

"Under 15 per cent of IT Directors are women compared to nearly a third of tech workers in support roles.

"Given it is the IT Director who normally wields the axe and the support roles most likely to be cut, the challenge is to increase female representation at senior levels."

Hickmott also said that many of the tech roles created during the pandemic were remote, which favoured women juggling career and caring responsibilities.

These remote roles have been among the first to go as the economy slowed and the pushback against remote working gathered pace.

He added: "The silver lining in these data is the relative resilience of the UK tech sector to the wave of job losses initiated by US tech giants in Q3 of last year.

"US tech companies went on a hiring binge during the pandemic and have found it much easier to shed staff due to weaker labour laws.

"The European tech sector, by contrast, isn't characterised by such a hire and fire working culture."

Tech layoffs also don't seem to be going away - Microsoft recently announced further layoffs as it enters its 2024 fiscal year.

Some in the channel, however, still see these tech layoffs as an opportunity. David Grant, CEO of distributor Westcon-Comstor said that while the talent shortage is still a prominent issue, layoffs could be an opportunity to hire this outgoing talent into the channel.