A recent survey reports that umbrella companies and recruitment firms specialising in providing skilled technical workers to companies in need have only been able to fill four out of every five vacancies, leaving around 20 per cent of positions unfilled due to permanent worker and freelancer shortages in the media, accountancy, finance, interim management, engineering, and IT sectors.
The 2011 UK Commission for Employment and Skills Survey found that there are more than 144,000 permanent and ongoing contractor vacancies across several sectors due to the shortage of technically skilled workers. The impact has been quite devastating, with 47 per cent of all organisations reporting vacancies stating that it has been difficult meeting customer service objectives as a result, 45 per cent have had no choice but to delay the development of new services or products, and 44 per cent have had to relinquish market share to their rivals.
Contractors with the skills so badly in demand are in an excellent position to generate business for themselves or through the help of an umbrella company, experts say. Meanwhile, the study revealed an additional statistic that has startled employment experts, as it found that nearly half of the 87,500 businesses and service organisations that participated in the study had staff that were over-qualified for their positions, which is roughly equivalent to 16 per cent of British workers – or 4.5 million people.
While the possibilities for each of these over-qualified employees vary according to their skill sets, the potential exists for each of these to take on work as a freelancer or a contractor, experts say, indicating that the interim worker sector has loads of potential for growth.
