When it comes to popular lines of work for umbrella company contractors the IT field is up there at the top, and a new survey shows where in the UK the top is.
A new report from Experis found out exactly where interim IT workers are in the highest demand, measured by the amount of money that firms are willing to pay freelancers and contract workers in the IT sector on a daily basis. Rounding out the top five – unsurprisingly, if you ask me – are London in the top spot, followed closely by Bristol and Manchester and then Glasgow and Edinburgh north of the border.
Experis found that short term IT workers averaged day rates of £417 in London. This is more than one and a half times the average daily pay for Sheffield, the city that was number ten on the list, where temporary IT workers earned around £291 on average. The capital is certainly the epicentre of the IT market when it comes to vacancies – some 72 per cent of them are right in London – but digital sector opportunities are rising rapidly in the regions, believe it or not. This is of course good news for anyone who loathes the capital and would rather not live or work in the region if there’s any way to avoid it.
Honestly I’m not surprised to see such high-paying opportunities for IT contractors and freelancers, as the market has always been almost ridiculously robust. Regardless of much of the rest of the economy, there’s always going to be a strong demand for individuals with solid expertise in technology like cloud computing and server maintenance. This goes double for large-scale firms located in major cities like London, Edinbrugh and so on; on top of that interconnectivity means that you don’t have to live and work in a major capital city to gain access to good work opportunities in the IT sector, though of course it definitely helps.
Of course, the skills shortage isn’t hurting either. With permanent workers possessing the requisite expertise a bit thin on the ground, firms find themselves turning to interim workers to fill the gaps in the meantime just so they can continue to keep up with supply-side demand. It’s good news for contract workers indeed!
