There was less demand for umbrella company contractors with IT skills last month than at any other time during 2011, according to the latest Report on Jobs from the REC.
It would seem that the November improvement was nothing more than a blip as demand for temporary IT workers registered a month-on-month decrease from 52.8 to 51.4. In December 2010, demand for IT contractors stood at 57.0.
October had been the previous low point for IT contractors. In the month when AWR came into being, the REC’s index registered 52.1.
The REC Index recorded a decrease in temporary roles in IT, engineering and accounting and financial services and believes this gives a clear indication that companies in the UK are too nervous to commit to even short term hiring.
Bernard Brown, a partner at KPMG, the firm that co-authors the report, said the continuing uncertainty in the Eurozone is to blame for this new lack of business confidence. All we seem to hear is that 2012 will be another tough year.
Despite the decrease in opportunities, REC agents said they struggled to find temporary candidates with skills in Citrix, Datastage, .Net, Oracle and Firewall technologies last month. On the permanent side, recruiters were crying out for people with digital marketing, IT security and web architecture skills, as well as candidates to fill .Net and enterprise software positions.
Recruiters however remain optimistic with many reporting that 2012 has started off on a positive note with clients releasing opportunities after the end of the holiday season.
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