Sudden IT skills famine overruns recruiters

Shortages of IT contractors in London appear to be just the tip of the iceberg, as more than 20 technology skills are now scarce throughout the computing sector and across the country.

In publishing what must be its longest ever list of scarce skills for IT roles, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation showed that the shortages have more than doubled since October.

So only last month (and the month before -- September) there were just eight skills that REC member agencies struggled to find for full-time technology positions. Now there are 19.

They are -- Application Support; Automation Testing, CAD, Cyber Security, Cisco, DevOps, Digital, GDPR, IT, Java Development, Matlab, Oracle Fusion, Pen Testing, PHP, Python, Scala Development, ScrumMasters, Software Development and UX.

Seven of those are in short supply among IT contractors too -- Automation Testing; Cyber Security, Digital, GDPR, IT, Pen Testing, Scala Development.   

But there’s three additional technology skill areas that the agencies found to be uniquely scarce for temporary opportunities -- Application Testing, Gaming and UI Development.

The big appetite for IT freelancers registered on the REC’s index at 61.2, up from 60.0, and signalling very strong growth, as any score over 50.0 signals growth since the prior month.

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