JOBLIFT STUDIES THE UK FINTECH JOB MARKET’S SURPRISING GROWTH IN THE POST BREXIT-VOTE LANDSCAPE
Berlin/Hamburg 2 May 2017 - There has recently been a lot of movement in the UK’s FinTech market; Chancellor Philip Hammond has praised UK FinTech firms, while Taveet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, has commented on the European FinTech unicorn’s decision to relocate out of the current FinTech capital, London. Hinrikus warned FinTech companies against settling in the UK amidst the Brexit uncertainty, especially with the recent announcement from the EU about the lock-down on the UK’s financial sector. However, meta search engine Joblift has investigated whether the UK’s FinTech job market is currently experiencing the effects of Brexit and if new FinTech companies really are looking away from London. Joblift’s studies show a significant average growth of 5% in the number of jobs advertised in the FinTech sector. Furthermore, Joblift has compared London’s FinTech landscape with that of Berlin – the European city being hotly tipped as London’s major competitor – and has shown that confidence still lies with London over its European counterparts.
THE FINTECH JOB MARKET HAS SEEN AN AVERAGE GROWTH OF 5% AND CONFIDENCE REMAINS WITH LONDON AS 79% OF ALL FINTECH JOBS ARE ADVERTISED HERE
According to Joblift there has been an average monthly growth of 5% in the number of FinTech jobs posted in the UK in the past year, this is in comparison with a growth of 1% in the UK job market as a whole. Despite fears around the triggering of Article 50 and the risks associated with Brexit, this monthly growth highlights the confidence in the UK’s economic environment. As expected, Joblift found that London is home to the most job adverts in this sector with 5,416 jobs posted, however the extent of the gap between the capital and Manchester – which comes in at second – is substantial. Since January this year London has been the location of around 30 times more FinTech job postings than in Manchester, where 166 FinTech jobs have been posted in 2017. The largest direct employer in the UK’s FinTech industry is the payment processing company WorldPay which has advertised a total of 264 FinTech-related jobs in the past year and has offices in both London and Manchester.
BELFAST IS EMERGING AS A UK FINTECH HUB, AS THE CITY SEES AN AVERAGE MONTHLY GROWTH OF 18%
Interestingly, Belfast ranks as the region with the third highest number of FinTech jobs posted in the UK. This comes after Software Development company Unosquare recently announced the creation of 100 Belfast jobs in this sector with the opening of their new engineering support centre in the city. From May 2016, Belfast has seen a huge 18% average monthly increase in the number of FinTech jobs posted, making it a real contender in the FinTech industry and demonstrating significant global investment despite a looming Brexit.
LONDON VERSUS BERLIN – DESPITE BERLIN’S START-UP THREAT, UK CAPITAL SHOWS FOUR TIMES MORE MONTHLY GROWTH IN FINTECH JOBS THAN ITS GERMAN COMPETITOR
Berlin has been touted as London’s major competitor for the title of Europe’s FinTech hub, given uncertain Brexit effects and Berlin’s expanding start-up scene. However, Joblift’s research shows that London trumps the German capital in both the number of jobs being posted and, more surprisingly, the rate of job market growth. Over the past year, 3,370 FinTech jobs have been posted in London which is over twice as many as advertised in Berlin where 1,458 jobs have been posted. Given London’s already strong standing in the FinTech sector, this may not seem surprising. However, a more substantial statistic - amidst the news that more start-ups (many of which are FinTech companies) are moving out of London in favour of Berlin – is the percentage increase in the number of jobs being posted in each city. Over the past year, Berlin has seen an average monthly increase in the number of FinTech jobs being posted of 2%, compared to an average 7% increase in London. This again signifies that the Brexit threat has yet, and currently looks unlikely, to materialise in the FinTech sector.
About Joblift
Joblift is meta search engine for currently more than 1,000,000 jobs from over 100 partner job boards. Joblift’s customised search filters and email notifications allow users to personalise their search criteria. The company was founded in 2015 by Lukas Erlebach and Malte Widenka. At the two locations in Hamburg and Berlin, Joblift currently employs a team of around 40 employees.