UK businesses could face a tech talent crisis if they don’t embrace working from home, as new research reveals less than 1 in 5 developer jobs offer remote working.
According to research by developer recruitment platforms CoderPad and CodinGame*, only 19% of the 82,222 developer jobs currently being advertised in the UK give the option of working remotely.
Similar research carried out by CodinGame 12 months ago, found that 23% of tech job posts were remote.
This drop in the proportion of developer roles that offer remote working is surprising, particularly in light of businesses struggling to hire skilled developers.
Embracing remote working means that businesses are able to tap into a wider pool of talent rather than being dependent on hiring locally.
Also, with a recent tech survey by CodinGame and Coderpad, revealing that 70% of developers would like to work remotely if given the opportunity, businesses are more appealing to candidates.
And in a candidate driven market, that can give companies the edge over the competition.
Regional breakdown
Of the towns and cities where there are currently more than 100 job ads for developers, Peterborough (32% remote posts) and Dundee (31% remote posts) offer the highest percentage of remote positions.
Dundee’s global reputation for computer games has helped to fuel the growth of the city’s tech sector. It also explains why 31% of developer job posts are remote, as companies look to hire the very best international tech talent.
London has the highest number of developer jobs of any city, but the percentage of remote roles (17%) is one of the lowest of any town/city.
Hull is at the foot of the table, with just 10% of the 329 job ads for developers offering candidates the opportunity to work from home.
Table: Major UK towns and cities with the highest percentage of remote roles for developers.
| Location | Number of developer positions | Number of remote positions | % of remote positions |
| Peterborough | 253 | 82 | 32.4 |
| Dundee | 104 | 32 | 30.8 |
| Stevenage | 335 | 95 | 28.4 |
| Oxford | 876 | 243 | 27.7 |
| Mansfield | 410 | 112 | 27.3 |
| Brighton | 401 | 103 | 25.7 |
| Sunderland | 439 | 112 | 25.5 |
| Bristol | 2482 | 621 | 25.0 |
| Leeds | 3049 | 758 | 24.9 |
| Wigan | 412 | 101 | 24.5 |
N.B. Only towns and cities with 100 or more developer jobs currently being advertised included in the table
Aude Barral, co-founder and CCO of developer recruitment platform CodinGame, comments:
“We’d have expected to see a higher proportion of tech roles offering remote working, compared to 12 months ago. It’s surprising the percentage has fallen, especially in light of the exceptionally high demand for skilled developers.
“Companies face intense competition when it comes to attracting the very best tech talent, and offering remote working not only resonates with candidates, it also enables businesses to tap into a wider talent pool.
“Outside major tech hubs such as London, Manchester and Bristol, businesses may struggle to hire from a limited pool of tech talent on their doorstep. Offering remote working opens up opportunities to recruit globally and build a tech team based away from the office.”
—Ends—
Notes to editors
* UK towns and cities advertising more than 100 developer jobs on 30th May 2022, were analysed on the jobs website Adzuna, looking at the total number of developer positions being advertised and of those positions, the number that were remote roles.
About CoderPad – CoderPad is a comprehensive technical assessment platform that helps companies efficiently hire candidates with the strongest skills. Our technology empowers customers around the world to screen and interview best-in-class talent with a focus on candidate experience, bringing a layer of transparency and fairness to the hiring process. CoderPad’s suite of technology covers the entire interview process from initial screening to live programming interviews and allows companies to hire the best developers based on skills and not resumes. Headquartered in San Francisco, CoderPad serves over 3,300 customers, including Goldman Sachs, Netflix, Slack, Snowflake, Stripe, and more, and has hosted more than 3 million technical interviews in 30+ languages. Visit www.coderpad.io for more information.
About CodinGame – CodinGame is both a game-based training platform for developers and a powerful technical hiring suite for companies. Over 2 million passionate programmers from around the world sharpen their skills, for free, by playing games and solving puzzles on codingame.com. Companies looking to recruit skilled programmers turn to CodinGame’s hiring solution to streamline their processes with online, pre-employment technical tests. Recruiters use these tests to quickly, efficiently and fairly shortlist developers based on their coding skills. CodinGame’s customers include Nasdaq, Electronic Arts, Samsung, and Facebook. Visit www.codingame.com/work for more information.
