Umbrella company contractors will be pleased to learn that despite the global economic turmoil, their rates have managed to increase.
The average hourly rate for contractors with the ten most requested skills rose from £30.84 at the end of the first half of 2011 to £31.25 now. Although this may seem to be a modest rise at just over 1%, it is still an increase.
London and the South East of England appear much healthier than the rest of the UK, and the private sector is in much better shape than the public sector.
ReThink Recruitment recently released data claiming that 40% of new roles for IT contractors are based in London. Before the recession, only a third of IT contractor roles were based in London.
Matthew Brown, the MD of Giant, pointed out that a third of contractors expect the financial services sector will create a large proportion of jobs over the next 12 months, and a lot of these companies are based either in the City or the South East. Banks are looking to increase their productivity and demand for people with cloud computing skills has risen sharply.
APSCo claims that demand across the finance sector has shot up by 65% in the past year, mainly driven by concerns over regulatory compliance.
It will come as no surprise to learn that IT contractors in the public sector are not so confident about future prospects. Only 9% believe the public sector will create more IT roles than the private sector in the coming year.
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