Technology firms are largely unconcerned with wider economic issues affecting the country, with a new study finding that tech companies are eager to expand by hiring skilled contractors and freelancers.
One leading technology trade association’s inaugural tech sector report found a surprising number of its members have plans to expand over the next six months. A full 67 per cent said that they’re committed to growing their businesses, and 43 per cent explicitly said that they will be hiring more staff and are likely to pull from the ranks of agency workers and umbrella service companies.
IT contractors are especially poised to see an uptick in demand for their services by this news, especially because there is a widely-known skill shortage in the information technology sector. Tech firms looking to expand will undoubtedly need skilled, experienced workers to provide support for growing IT infrastructure, and there was much concern expressed around both short-term and long-term skills shortages in the sector survey, and could to a serious recruitment drive for both permanent positions and temporary workers.
In fact, most companies will probably prefer to hire on contract workers in higher numbers than they will permanent ones due to the advantages interim workers bring to the table. Contractors and freelancers can be hired on a per-project basis and offers large benefits to employers on a cost and flexibility basis, as permanent workers are much more expensive to employ than temporary ones – and while tech companies seem largely unconcerned with the existing economic turmoil, they’re taking steps to maximise the return on their investment such as edging away from superfluous employment costs.
