North’s knowledge economy on course to create 80,000 jobs

Northern Ireland’s knowledge economy now employs one in every 11 people locally and is on track to create 80,000 jobs by 2030, latest industry figures show.

The 2016 Knowledge Economy (KE) Report, launched in Belfast on Tuesday, says that Northern Ireland has the second fastest growing knowledge economy in the UK, just behind Scotland.

It supported 435 new business startups in 2016, while spending on research and development hit record levels.

The report is complied by Connect at Catalyst Inc, a nonprofit that supports and fosters entrepreneurs. It shows that the local KE accounts for 85 per cent of all sales, worth £5 billion (€5.8 billion) last year, outside of Northern Ireland

KE now employs some 39,500 people. Connect estimates that, including indirect jobs, it has the potential to support 160,000 jobs in Northern Ireland by 2030.

Steve Orr, director of Connect at Catalyst Inc, said those employed in the KE in the North earn a third above the average wage, and are also more productive.

The report also outlines that for every person employed in the KE, nearly one other full time job is created in a different sector.

The new shipbuilding

Mr Orr said the knowledge economy offers Northern Ireland a future “where ideas are the new linen, software development the new shipbuilding, and brainpower our new muscle”. Although the North’s KE is export-intensive, he added, most of its sales are outside the European Union, leaving it less exposed to a fallout from Brexit.

This creates additional opportunities for the North, which Mr Orr said has developed a well-earned reputation for success in critical KE areas. This in turn helps secure new investment.

“We are an acknowledged international leader in cyber security research,” he said. This expertise has “led to the creation locally of more than 1,000 jobs in the last three years, with more in the pipeline, in effect leading to the creation of a new business cluster in Northern Ireland, involving more than 30 companies.”

The report says the North now needs to boost knowledge economy activity at a faster rate than its competitors – and convert this into economic outcomes that equal employment and wage growth.

Among the recommendations is that Northern Ireland should focus on becoming “world-class in research and development in specialist clusters of healthcare, cyber security and data analytics as well as advanced engineering”.

It also advocates that the local education system be “aligned” to meet the requirements of a knowledge intensive economy.