According to jobadswatch.co.uk, the third quarter of 2011 saw an increase in the number of opportunities for IT umbrella company contractors.
The website’s data shows a 4.7% increase in the number of adverts for freelancers on the main IT and multi-sector UK recruitment sites in Q3. The number of adverts for full-time IT staff also increased, but only by 1%. However, these figures show that IT recruitment has been expanding for the last nine consecutive quarters.
Jobsadwatch expects this upturn will continue, as employers frequently turn to contractors in the first instance when hiring conditions improve.
However, there are regional disparities and IT contractors in the North West actually saw a 13% decrease in the number of job adverts in the third quarter, whilst Inner London registered the most new contracts.
Adverts for contractors with AGILE skills were up by 38%, followed by .Net with a 23% increase. AGILE is very much the new kid in town, but is rapidly gaining in popularity. There has been a 75% increase in demand for permanent staff with this particular IT skill over the past year.
None of the IT skills registered a fall in demand, but candidates hoping to secure a public sector IT contract saw a 40% drop in adverts.
Financial services firms are now looking for more IT contractors than they were this time last year, as are software houses.
The Monster Employment Index also registered a 19% increase in IT recruitment over the past 12 months. Despite this, the IT sector dropped to fifth place in the monster overall rankings. Engineering topped the chart, transport and logistics came in second and maintenance and construction occupied the third and fourth places.
Monster’s Employment Index also showed that in September, six out of the nine regions in the UK saw an annual increase in online job vacancies. Best of all was the South West where opportunities increased by 22%.
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