While the recruitment market for freelancers and umbrella contractors is still relatively strong, new research has found that IT contracting positions are down.
2012 was a much better year for IT contractors, according to umbrella company Giant, which found that this year has seen opportunities drop off by nearly half. Giant said that the ailing health of the IT contracting sector is most likely due to the fact that this time last year saw demand ramping up in a major way due to the requirements placed upon UK infratructure by the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
However, it wasn’t all bad news, as the Giant survey also found that public sector and financial services contractors were experiencing a heightened demand year-on-year as the focus shifted away from short-term projects meant to support the Summer Games and back towards longer term opportunities instead. Giant’s managing director, Matthew Brown, confirmed this by remarking that the IT and retail contracting opportunities brought forth by the Olympics and the Paralympics last year did indeed provide excellent economic growth in 2012, which drove the demand for IT contracting specialists.
Now that the Summer Games have come and gone, contracting opportunities linked to the 30th Olympiad have dropped off the board, Mr Brown added, remaking that the drop was indeed an expected one. Still, the managing director struck a positive tone in light of the umbrella company’s research findings indicating that public sector and financial services billings were on the increase.
In a way, the impact of regulatory issues and budget constraints on the UK economy has helped to drive contracting even further, thanks to the fact that it’s usually cheaper to use a freelancer than it is to use permanent employees for the same role. Mr Brown said that Giant has the expectation that this trend will continue throughout the coming months, which could help to offset the loss of any contracting opportunities related to the Summer Games.
If you ask me, this was indeed something that was expected, as the type of intense infrastructure requirements holding the Olympics places on a host country over such a short period of time. The nature of both the Summer and Winter Olympics, which flits from country to country every two years, places massive strain on host countries and usually leads to a rather sharp decline in economic prosperity shortly afterwards as everyone packs up and moves back to their home countries in preparation for the next Olympic gathering; in a way it’s almost not worth hosting the Games if it means your economy takes a palpable hit right afterwards – that’s my opinion, anyway!
