IT contractors do not appear to be faring as well as temporary workers in other sectors.
The KPMG and REC’s latest Report on jobs shows that recruitment demand for IT contractors has dropped for the 3rd consecutive month, whilst demand in all other sectors is rising. The only area where demand for temps is high is web development. In January this year, demand for IT contractors stood at 58.7 on the REC index. This has now fallen back to 56.4.
KPMG’s head of business services, Bernard Brown, attributes the drop to a fall in demand for IT workers in the public sector. The government has made it very clear that cuts need to be made in public sector spending and it is likely that many organisations froze recruitment in advance of the emergency budget.
Whilst demand for umbrella company contractors in the sector has been falling, the workload for those currently in a contract has been increasing. And this trend could continue for the rest of the year. A recent survey conducted by ReThink Recruitment showed that two thirds of contractors expect their workload to increase and yet less than 50% of them think they will get an increased budget.
However, this downturn in the fortunes of IT freelancers may be about to reverse. NESTA believes that IT contractors could be a driving force in promoting growth in sectors such as aerospace, defence and even pharmaceuticals.
Simon Westlake, from NESTA, also said that there are certain niches where growth can be expected, such as videogames.
Meanwhile, permanent IT staff have been faring slightly better. There is still a demand for techies with enterprise software and IT security skills.
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