Government · UK · Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Closing UK digital talent gaps could add £16bn a year
Removing the barriers that hold women back from digital jobs could add £16 billion a year to the UK digital economy, with a further £15 billion on the table from including more workers aged 50 to 69, according to new DSIT modelling.
Source published Summarised
Read the full report from Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
Key findings at a glance
- £16 billion potential annual gain to the UK digital economy from fully removing barriers to women's representation, worth 6% of its gross value added
- £15 billion potential annual gain from proportionate representation of workers aged 50 to 69, worth 7% of digital economy GVA
- £4 billion estimated boost to total UK GDP a year from addressing women's under-representation in digital roles
- £7 billion estimated boost to total UK GDP a year from addressing under-representation of workers aged 50 to 69
- 7% share of the female workforce that works in the UK digital economy
- 11% share of the male workforce that works in the UK digital economy
- 39% how much lower women's digital economy participation rate is than men's
- 35% how much lower the participation rate of workers aged 50 to 69 is than those under 35
- £7,000 average yearly gain per woman already in the digital economy once barriers are removed
- £15,000 average yearly gain per worker aged 50 to 69 in the digital economy once barriers are removed
- £5 billion potential annual digital economy gain from addressing under-representation of people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds
- £3 billion potential annual digital economy gain from addressing under-representation of disabled workers
What the report covers
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) published this research on 6 July 2026. It sets out to answer a single question: how much larger would the UK digital economy be if the barriers that push women, older workers and other under-represented groups away from digital jobs, barriers unrelated to their skills or productivity, were removed? To answer it, DSIT built an economic model of how people sort themselves into the digital economy versus the rest of the economy, then estimated the output lost when talent is misallocated.
The starting picture is stark. Just 7% of the female workforce works in the digital economy against 11% of the male workforce, and older workers are similarly thin on the ground. DSIT frames the resulting figures not as forecasts but as the scale of the prize: the upper-bound gain available if representation were made proportionate. The numbers sit alongside a sector that continues to attract serious capital, as our earlier report on how the UK digital and tech sector raised £8.25bn in equity in 2025 showed.
What this means for UK marketers
For anyone running or hiring into a UK digital team, this report puts a number on something the market already feels: demand for digital skills keeps outstripping the pool of people able to fill the roles. When only 7% of women and a shrinking share of over-50s make it into digital jobs, agencies and in-house teams are competing for talent from a base that is smaller than it needs to be. That tightness shows up as slower hiring, higher salaries and more work chasing fewer qualified people, a pressure that has only sharpened as UK vacancies have fallen while unemployment has climbed.
The practical takeaway is not to wait for a policy fix. The report is explicit that it does not model any specific intervention, only the size of the opportunity, which leaves the initiative with employers. Widening where you recruit from, writing job ads that do not screen out career-changers and older applicants, and building flexible, part-time and returner routes are all levers within an agency's own control. DSIT's finding that mothers stand to gain more than women without children (£8,000 a year against £6,000) points straight at flexibility as the barrier that bites hardest.
There is a client-facing angle too. Brands that sell into the digital and tech sector are marketing to an audience that is less diverse than the wider workforce, and one where representation is a live commercial and reputational issue. Campaigns, case studies and thought leadership that speak credibly to under-represented talent are not simply good ethics. They map onto a measurable £16 billion gap that decision-makers are now being asked to close.
How they got the data
DSIT's estimates come from an economic model of individuals' sectoral choices, calibrated largely on the ONS Labour Force Survey, using pooled data from 2022 to 2025 (Quarter 3) and adjusting earnings with the ONS Average Weekly Earnings series. The analysis covers employed workers aged 16 to 69 and excludes the self-employed. The digital economy itself is defined through a tiered set of Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes rather than a single industry line, so it captures software, telecoms, computing hardware and digital publishing.
The results are deliberately framed as upper bounds. The model infers the size of the barriers from the degree of under-representation, without claiming to know what those barriers are or what it would cost to remove them, and the group-level gains cannot be added together because the groups overlap. It is a measure of potential, not a prediction.
Government · UK
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From Department for Science, Innovation and Technology · published 06/07/2026