PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Five for Friday is a weekly feature to give a brief roundup of our top five stories from the week that you might have missed. Think we left anything out? Let us know your favourite stories of the week by pinging us a tweet @pcr_online.
The number of IT jobs is on the rise in the UK. In total, the IT sector saw job roles increase by 12 per cent in the first quarter of 2017, compared to the same time last year. Software engineers and developers were particularly sought after, accounting for 14 per cent of new vacancies, according to the Robert Walters UK Jobs Index.
Ahsan Iqbal, Associate Director, Robert Walters said: “The UK it sector has enjoyed strong steady growth over the past several years and was largely resistant to the slowdown in hiring seen by other sectors in the midst of political and economic uncertainty last year. However, the start of 2017 has nevertheless seen a significant increase in IT hiring, with developers particularly sought after. Demand from startup firms in fin tech has played a significant role in this, in addition to large established companies investing heavily in cyber security.”
2017 is the year of the small business
Eight out of 10 British consumers prefer independent businesses over larger stores, leading to a potential year of small business, according to Liberis.
According to a survey conducted by the alternative finance provider, 65 per cent of UK shoppers were aware that using a smaller provider can be more expensive, but responses suggested that the benefits of doing so outweighed the increased costs as 48 per cent still wanted to boost the local economy and support their community.
Amazon to create 1,200 new jobs in Warrington
On Thursday ubiquitous online retailer and service provider Amazon announced that it is set to create 1,200 new permanent jobs with the opening of a new fulfilment centre in Warrington. The company will start recruiting later this year for a range of new roles, including operations managers, engineers, HR and IT specialists.
The new fulfilment centre in Warrington will be one of four that Amazon opens in 2017, with others in Daventry, Doncaster and Tilbury. In total, the new centres will create more than 2,300 new permanent full time jobs. The Daventry centre opened in February, with the others beginning operations in the Autumn.
The Ryze of AMD – Interview with Neil Spicer
We spoke to Neil Spicer, EMEA component channel sales director at AMD, about Ryzen and what the company is doing to stay ahead of the curve
"Ryzen processors mark a complete departure from previous generation architectures and are entirely different than previous generation hardware. This product offers outstanding energy efficiency and enhanced performance over our last generation. Our view is that PC gaming is a great way to reach millions of people. There’s a direct relationship between how many people can buy processors vs the price and so we put out a great product at a great price, and we’re really excited to bring up to 8-cores and 16 threads of performance to so many more people."
The UK IT Channel is full of wonderfully exciting young talents so once again we’ve done our best to shine a spotlight on 30 of the top professionals under the age of 30 from all corners of the IT world from retailers and resellers to disties and vendors.
