The PCG recently surveyed the freelance marketplace and discovered that there are currently around 1.4 million contractors in the UK; 41% or 574,000 of them are IT contractors.
Approximately 200,000 of the UK’s contractors work through an umbrella company, 406,000 are limited company contractors, a similar amount are agency PAYE and the remaining 294,000 are sole traders.
Back in 2002, the contracting market was doing exactly that and people thought contractors were finished. And yet here we are 9 years later and the freelance workforce keeps on going from strength to strength. Companies, especially in financial services, now appear to rely a lot more on IT contractors as a way of cutting costs.
Hot on the heels of news that RBS is cutting their IT contractor’s hourly rates by 10%, comes the news that Lloyds and Nomura are taking similar action.
Lloyds have cut the rate they pay agencies by between 10% and 15%. However, contractors who have been with them for at least six months will not feel the effects until their contract comes up for renewal. Nomura, on the other hand, have followed suit with RBS and last month cut contractor rates by 10%.
However, there are plenty of opportunities for skilled IT contractors outside the financial services sector. Cloud computing and security are still top of the corporate agenda and people skilled in developing bespoke mobile applications are likely to be in demand for many years to come. Individuals with SAP and .Net skills should also have no problem securing a contract.
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Image: laptop-yellow-pivot by Salvor
