Freelancers in the public sector have had a roller coaster year so far and they will probably be relieved to learn that demand for IT contractors in the sector rose sharply in September.
Computer People recently released its latest figures showing that roles for IT contractors in the public sector increased by 4.3% in September; a reflection that critical projects are still going ahead despite the spending cuts.
The agency commented that although times are hard in the public sector, managers are more likely to use contractors because they can attribute the costs to project budgets, rather than fixed costs.
Sid Barnes, one of Computer People’s directors, said the permanent market has fared worse than the contract one over the past half-year and this could mean contractors are getting the work that would normally have gone to permanent employees.
An increasing number of public sector projects were re-instated and new ones approved. Hiring managers also received new budgets and were keen to snap up quality contractors. The demand for C #, .Net and Oracle contractors has been steadily increasing and although database developers saw rates decrease slightly in September, it is thought there is still money in the pot.
The agency also believes demand for IT contractors will increase further in the first quarter of next year as managers try to spend any left over budget before the year-end.
However, what will that mean when it comes to the second quarter? Barnes believes that spending will reflect both budget levels and managers’ confidence levels in the IT community as a whole.
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Image: Balancing Act by Evil Erin
