Well here’s a lovely how do you do: turns out that last month, demand for umbrella contractors in Scotland far outstripped the rest of the UK by a wide margin.
Or at least, that’s what the Bank of Scotland says, according to its most recent jobs report. The Bank found that not only did Scotland exhibit excellent vacancy growth across all core contracting disciplines but that job billings went up at the fastest rate in over two years.
That’s nothing, though – wait until you hear how the IT sector did in Scotland. It turns out that IT contractors are riding a 17 month high when it comes to demand for their services, and that’s damned good news for anyone looking for a job in the information technology or general computing industries, though apparently the hospitality sector and the medical industry in Scotland are still at the top of the heap when it comes to raw demand.
Now, a cynic will undoubtedly say that the massive demand levels are simply due to the crippling skills shortage gripping the entire country, and to be honest there may be something there in such a statement. For what it’s worth, there is a serious problem in the UK at the moment with the number of workers available for employment – there’s simply not enough skilled and qualified people to go around, and that’s why permanent job billings are up across the board.
However, when it comes to umbrella company contractors things are quite different. Freelancers are positively benefiting from the skills shortage because most of these interim workers are both highly skilled and qualified, and thanks to the flexibility of contract work, these freelancers have become so in demand that nearly any contract worker in a given field is positively drowning in work offers.
So in other words, right now it’s a fantastic time to be a contract worker – and it’s even better to be one in Scotland. Still there’s this little niggling thought in the back of my head – what happens to contractors if even they can’t stem the rising tide of demand caused by the skills shortage? Are we going to see businesses start to collapse under the strain of not being able to accomplish anything, or are they going to begin turning to overseas resources, which would contribute to unemployment here at home? There seems like no way to win, is there?
