North ‘to see digital jobs boom’

THE north of England could become the cornerstone of the UK’s digital sector, according to an economist.

Douglas McWilliams, president of the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr), predicted the digital economy in northern cities would grow 20 per cent each year to 2020, compared with 5 per cent a year in London. He said the number of digital jobs in northern England was set to grow from 284,000 in 2015 to 622,000 in 2020, with one in 11 jobs in the region in the digital economy by 2020.

Mr McWilliams wrote a book, The Flat White Economy, describing the rise of the digital economy in Britain over the past few years. He and his colleagues at Cebr have used an analysis based on the United States to model the likely growth.

He said: “Using our modelling based on the US experience, we predict very rapid growth in jobs in the north of England.”