Despite the decline in demand last month, the ICT sector is still looking healthy, according to the REC’s latest Report on Jobs.
Last month, demand for IT contractors fell to its lowest point so far this year but the sector still saw quarterly growth. More IT contractors were available for placement in September and those who began a contract might have witnessed a slight drop in their hourly rate.
On the temporary front, only business analysts and .net developers are in short supply. However, there is still a shortage of full-time skilled workers in slightly more aspects of IT. Experienced cloud computing experts, enterprise software sales staff and IT security personnel being amongst the hardest to recruit.
Demand for senior IT staff on the other hand soared by 39% in August, according to IntaPeople. Stephen Riley, a director of the IT recruitment company, said that whilst businesses are being cautious about recruitment, top-level personnel have not been impacted. Companies obviously believe delivering business growth through IT will be important in the coming year.
Currently only medical and nursing temps are less in demand than their IT counterparts. The decline in demand for healthcare professionals is however understandable as the coalition has demanded NHS cutbacks.
KPMG co-authored the report and their head of business services explained that the slump in IT demand was in part due to public sector hiring freezes.
Most in demand last month were construction, engineering and executive staff which indicates that the private and manufacturing sectors are continuing to recover.
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