Burnley tops ONS digital jobs growth tables – a hub of digital innovation

Burnley tops ONS digital jobs growth tables – a hub of digital innovation

Figures just released by the ONS Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES), show Burnley ranks an impressive second place for digital jobs growth in Britain. The Survey also showed Burnley continues to buck regional and national trends in overall private sector jobs growth.

Jobs growth in the digital sector is where Burnley really shone, with a yearly growth during 2014-15 of a whopping 161.8% – against NW growth of just 30.0% and GB growth of 2% in digital jobs.

Overall private sector job numbers have grown 5.5% in Burnley over 2014/2015, the average growth across Lancashire stands at 2.0.%, in the North West 2.0 % and Great Britain 2.8 %.

The digital economy is leading the growth of local economies across the UK and Burnley has seized the opportunities for growth in the digital sector, building on its existing digital business base to grow the economy with next generation jobs.

Council Leader, Mark Townsend, said: ”Embracing digital technology will have huge rewards for Burnley businesses and for the Burnley economy, making us a more competitive and more prosperous place”

“I’m delighted with the latest ONS digital jobs growth figures for Burnley and for the positive private sector jobs growth overall.”

Adding: “Burnley has several businesses at the forefront of global digital technology, IT and programming, including: the world class AMS Neve digital sound desks; one of the country’s most advanced 3D printing firms, FDM printing; leaders in digital IT and telecoms Chess Ltd; code warriersJP74; Vodafone Automotive and many more. Burnley is working hard to raise its profile as a town at the forefront of digital technology, and these results reinforce this important message.

“A Digital Burnley Group has recently been formed within the wider Digital Lancashire Initiative to shine a light on and to grow our digital economy and the ONS figures reflect the huge investments made to improve Burnley’s business partnerships and infrastructure over the past few years which has attracted several new businesses to Burnley.”

Mark Crabtree, OBE, Managing Director, AMS Neve, said: “The Digital Burnley Group is probably the most advanced cluster in Lancashire working to make the town the premier location for digital businesses as a contrast to a big city site.

“Our aims are to establish a thriving communal business hub to enhance our digital cluster. We’re also working to communicate clearly to students the skillsets that they need to succeed in this field and to actively assist with their education and experience – and so continue to increase the pool of Burnley’s digital talent.

“The ONS figures confirm what we are promoting – our digital growth and strengths in recruiting knowledge intensive jobs in the digital sector. A recent Independent Economic Review on the Northern Powerhouse identified ‘digital’ as a key growth opportunity for the North, and with our already successful digital hub and the new direct rail link to Manchester, this will open up huge opportunities for Burnley’s growth.”

Image left to right: Jake Smith and Peter Walker, Joint Directors, JP74, a rapidly growing digital programming business, in their state of the art offices on Shuttleworth Mead