Microsoft predicts 80,000 IT jobs for UK - News, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent

Almost 80,000 new jobs will be created over the next four years as thousands of new technology firms set up in business in the UK, technology giant Microsoft predicted today.

Research by the firm suggested more than £50bn will be spent on information technology (IT) this year and will increase by 1.8 per cent a year between now and 2013.

The IT market will drive the creation of nearly 2,500 new businesses and 78,200 new jobs between the end of this year and 2013, according to the study.

Most of the new companies will be small and locally owned organisations, and the jobs will be highly skilled and high-quality, said the report,

Microsoft underwent a "cultural reformation" when it felt the effect of the global recession, chief executive Steve Ballmer said today.

"Consumer spending was impacted, we had to decide how to cut. We suffered the first revenue declines in our company history. They were a few per cent," he said during a visit to London.

"I had a journalist say to me: 'Severe revenue decline' and I had to concede that any revenue decline felt severe if you've never had one.

"It was a cultural reformation for us," he said in the CBI annual lecture.

Microsoft "locked" its research and development budget and made sure it keep enough money to continue to establish new businesses, he said.

Microsoft predicts 80,000 IT jobs for UK - News, Gadgets & Tech - The Independent

Blogged with the Flock Browser