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Britain’s leading report into recruitment trends shows IT contracting is surging ahead of demand for ‘permies’ in a joint prospering for both market sectors. Fresh calculations from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultancy specialist, Deloitte, reveal in April IT contracting flourished beyond demand for full-time placements by a margin of one per cent. The report shows that in areas of Information technology and Computing - one of eight tested UK industries - demand for part-timers has rocketed 11.8 per cent since 2003. A similar rate increase was noted for permanent staff in IT, registering a market demand of 56.3 per cent suggesting growing confidence in all areas of IT employment. Commenting on the rates published in the report, John O’Sullivan, chairman of IT at the REC, explained the consistent rate raise was due to a number of factors. “The ongoing upturn in contractor demand has been spurred by an unrealistic and artificial base low, which when compared to previous rates, shows contractor demand to have rocketed." Mr O’Sullivan said that healthy conditions for contracting was intrinsic to the nature of the job, based on agreed periods of allocated time and predictable administration costs for clients. “A lot of it is a question of timing and availability as many companies to work more efficiently with greater speed are going to hire contractor instead of permies. This is a typical move for any company – IT or otherwise – as limited time sees contractors recruited instantly over the more delayed process of taking on fresh employees.” The chairman, who is also director at Spring group, the biggest UK provider of contracting and billing with an estimated 5,500 contracts in IT, told Contractor UK that the eleventh consecutive survey produced interesting results. “Contracting figures revealed in the report and the sheer amount of billing for temporary contracts in areas of IT is higher than the rates for permanent workers – but the perm has experienced an upturn too, which now only lags ever so slightly behind the rates of contracting.” Gareth Osbourne, Managing Director of REC added: “Continuing growth in both temporary and permanent placements is good news for employees and employers alike.” Separately the report suggested improved client confidence, the creation of new jobs and better marketing from companies helped increased consultancy billings for temporary staff. In the private sector, a higher number of individuals taking on full-time work ensured a nine-month pattern of increased labour. Deteriorating staff availability and a widely forecast skills deficit was said to have boosted salary earnings for approximately 20 per cent of temporary staff in the UK - while 78 per cent reported a freeze in their hourly rate. Additionally, average salaries awarded to people placed in new jobs and temporary staff pay both climbed for the eleventh consecutive poll with shortages in available skills influencing sharper rates. John O’Sullivan commented that the rise in contracting demand was fuelled by declining rates of availability and a widening skills gap. “Companies are still releasing money and contractors from last year’s IT projects – there is now more confidence among business and greater confidence in the UK economy than there was 12 to 18 months ago. Yet, companies having finished their projects, are now finding out about the underlying skill shortage that still exists when it comes to recruiting contractors.” He indicated determined IT contractors were ideally equipped to take advantage of the skills shortage: “Predominately developers and programmers are now in demand, which makes good sense for the supply and demand engine of the market’s fluctuation. Companies seek good people with industry specific skills who can be set to work quickly.” The REC data went on to highlight even stronger demand under other temporary contract areas such as Hotel & Catering staff hitting a new high of 67.8 per cent. The increase in demand for contractors in IT and computing was paralleled with other market growth rates including Executive/ Professional employment and Accountancy/Financial positions. May 10, 2004 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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