Despite a loss of over 156,000 jobs in 2009, Greater London has weathered the recession far better than most other areas of the country, with a net increase of almost 880,000 jobs since 2008.

Jobs in London grew on average by 13.8% annually since 2013, significantly higher than the 9.4% UK average, but below the top growth rate in the country, the East of England with 14.3% job growth. The borough of Westminster saw the highest job creation last year with 16,450 new roles, followed by 16,320 in the City of London, 8,610 in Camden. Most notably however is Tower Hamlets which had the fourth highest number of new positions at 7,570.

Jobs in information and communication have seen the biggest increase with 80,700 net new jobs since 2015. This was mainly seen among programmers and software developers. With average earnings in this industry in London at £56,300, workers earn approximately 22% more than the national average for this industry.

The findings are part of a new UK-wide ‘Workforce Intelligence’ study by Emsi, on behalf of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which looks at trends in local jobs markets within each Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) area in England, as well as in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Commenting on the data, Neil Carberry, CEO of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said:

“The jobs market in London has shown considerable strength since the recession, quickly recovering and growing at just under 14% year on year. There are few surprises that Westminster and the City came out on top. But there are signs that things are changing in some of the most deprived areas. Tower Hamlets, which has seen some of the highest levels of unemployment and poverty, created the fourth highest number of jobs last year out of the 32 London boroughs. Understanding what’s driving these trends is crucial for policy makers and for those who support the growth of the local economy.”

This new series of reports from Emsi and the REC will be helpful for recruiters and other businesses to deepen their understanding of what opportunities for job creation exist at a local level.”

Rob Slane, Head of Marketing at Emsi UK said:

“In terms of job losses, our data shows that London emerged from the 2008 recession much faster than other regions of the country, with an average of around 115,000 jobs being added every year from 2009 onwards. But the real value in the data is not so much in these headline figures, as it is in helping us see what is happening in the detail. For instance, the headlines tell us that London has over 80,000 more people working in the information and communitcation sector than in 2008, but by digging into the data we can see what has driven this growth and where it has taken place. For example, jobs in computer consutancy activities have grown by 8,600 in Kensington and Chelsea, 4,820 in the City of London and 2,220 in Islington since 2015. It’s by identifying these sorts of details that local stakeholders can make better decisions about their focus labour market, which is why we’ve partnered with the REC to put this sort of detailed insight into the hands of recruitment businesses.