Microsoft upbeat on UK technology market
Technology giant Microsoft has today released a forecast for the UK technology market which would indicate potentially 80,000 new jobs over the next four years. The company believes that over £50 billion a year will be spent on information technology in the UK and this will increase by 1.8% a year between 2009 and 2013. Upwards of 2,500 new businesses will materialise which will help to create the forecast 80,000 additional jobs.
However, one potential issue is the fact that Microsoft believes many of these new businesses will be small in size which could place them under financial pressure if the recession does not lift in the short to medium term. It will be interesting to see how the UK government goes about encouraging small firms to open up and join the UK employment market at a time when funding is low and taxes are set to rise. When you consider that the UK has lost its manufacturing base over the last few decades and the car industry is also on its knees, technology is perhaps one of the few growth markets in the UK.
The issue of funding from the UK government is one which will need to be addressed sooner rather than later, and hopefully along the lines of the US ideal, which has seen the US government heavily involved in start-up operations via government funding.
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