Manchester Digital, the independent trade association for digital business in the North West, has revealed that 32% of digital organisations in the region were forced to refuse work in 2013 due to a lack of resource, despite 83% of businesses experiencing growth.

The findings are results of the annual Digital Skills Audit commissioned by Manchester Digital and were announced at the opening of the Digital Skills Festival, which is running at Manchester Town Hall until Friday.

Chair of Manchester Digital Tony Foggett, who made the announcement, said: “Every year we carry out a skills audit of digital businesses in the region to help us plan our skills activity for the coming year.

“It enables us to highlight where there are real issues in the industry and means we can work with local and regional government, educators and other relevant bodies to help resolve them.”

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Other key findings in the audit announced at the event included that developers are still scarce in the North West and almost half of businesses surveyed (47%) have had to inflate salaries to remain competitive in the labour market with salaries for developers increasing on average by 16%.

Manchester Digital also announced its new skills partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, which aims to enhance the training needs of its 450 members.

Commenting on the partnership, Clive Memmott, chief executive of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, said: ‘The partnership with Manchester Digital means that we can combine forces to assist the training needs of the 450 members, to improve the provision and recruitment of digital apprenticeships to create a truly digital city.”