Young people are leading employment and wage growth in the UK’s science and technology sector, Employment Hero’s March Jobs Report shows.
Outpacing the sector’s already-strong performance by a considerable margin, Gen Z’s contributions come against a backdrop of strong backing from the UK Government to prioritise technology and science as part of its strategy to “turbocharge growth and boost living standards”.
Employment data shows that investment is beginning to have a tangible impact, with new opportunities opening up across the sector.
Gen Z Is Growing at Twice the Sector’s Rate
Drawn from a sample of more than 2,000 workers, the figures show Gen Z employment in science and technology is up 14% year-on-year (YoY) and 3% month-on-month (MoM). Overall, science and tech employment grew 6.3% YoY, meaning Gen Z is growing at more than twice that rate within the same sector. The wage picture is equally striking. In March, wages grew 0.7% MoM and 4% YoY, potentially reflecting competition for talent amid supposed skills shortages in the workforce.
Across the jobs market as a whole, Gen Z recorded the strongest wage growth of any generation at 9.9% YoY – and the science and tech figures suggest that trend is particularly pronounced in this sector.
A Sector Expanding on All Fronts
The wider science and technology sector is one of the more resilient performers in the March data. Wages grew 0.7% MoM and 4.0% YoY – a figure that points to genuine competition for talent, and where the race to up AI capability is intensifying the pressure to attract and retain the right people.
What the overall figures don’t show is how concentrated that growth is by age. The sector is expanding, but it is Gen Z – not older generations – who are accounting for the most significant share of that movement.
Why AI Is at the Centre of This
The most plausible explanation for Gen Z’s outsized share of science and tech growth is AI – both in terms of the roles it’s creating and the advantages it’s affording younger workers who have adopted it early.
According to the Higher Education Policy Institute’s 2026 AI Survey, AI use is now near-universal among students, with 95% reporting to use AI in at least one way, and 68% believing AI skills are essential to thrive in today’s world. Other surveys suggest the same. Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey shows that three-quarters of Gen Zs (74%) believe generative AI will impact the way they work within the next year, 78% believe it has improved the quality of their work, and 77% say it has helped to free up their time and improved their work/life balance.
Employment Hero’s research shows that 62% of business leaders are already creating, or planning to create, new AI-specific roles – roles well-suited for people who already possess the skills and instincts to work with AI fluently.
For a generation earlier in their careers, lighter on conventional experience and facing hiring slowdowns, that’s a shift that could prove to be incredibly positive in the near future.
Why This Growth Looks Permanent
What makes this story even more significant is the fact that it doesn’t look like a temporary uplift. Employment in the sector has grown consistently, wages are competitive, and the pipeline of new AI-specific roles points to demand that will continue to grow. The workers entering science and tech roles now – building AI skills and accumulating experience as those roles multiply – are well placed for what comes next.
It also reframes a debate that has often centred on AI as a threat to employment. In science and technology, at least, the data points the other way. AI is creating roles, Gen Z are filling them, and the numbers are moving in their favour.
