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Britain’s leading report into recruitment trends shows IT contractors are racing ahead of their permie rivals. Agencies have said a higher level of business activity in the economy has triggered stronger demand for contractors, as well as permanent workers throughout July. Temporary billings for IT professionals has climbed sharply over the last month, to 61.4 per cent - representing the fourteenth consecutive monthly rise. Demand for full time staff stands at 60.3 per cent, suggesting strong overall growth and renewed energy for both employment sectors. This is the picture from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), that adds wide skill shortages throughout July mounted to push rates even higher for available candidates. Weekly rates for contractors has risen steeply for the fourteenth successive month, with 44.5 per cent admitting to a higher sum than previously received. Just 14.5 per cent claim to have earned less money on the job than the month earlier, while a separate - 40.9 per cent - said their wage had not decreased but had remained the same. Permies also reported higher salaries for the twelfth consecutive month but failed to compete with record numbers of contractors now earning better rates on temporary projects. Across the industries tested by the REC, demand increased for the main types of employee and was especially strong in engineering, construction and services sectors. Rates for overall employment on the domestic market were higher and more solid in the last month, ensuring the healthiest demand for staff appointments for well over three years. Brett Walsh from business consultants, Deloitte, explained the “jobs survey showed that demand for staff by UK employers rose at a pace not seen, for some three-and-a-half years in July.” He added: “This increase in demand for staff represents a continuing shift from firms’ widespread cost cutting activities to the investment in additional capacity.” “With suitably skilled candidates in short supply, firms were again willing to offer substantially higher pay rates to attract the right staff.” In total, the availability of contractors has fallen rapidly, supporting the 32 per cent of 6,000 agencies reporting temp availability is now at a lower rate than previous months. Contractor demand was rated by the REC Index at 61.4 per cent in April, where it has continually fluctuated ever since. The July increase charts a new seasonal high for temporary worker demand and an overall index reading of 63.7 – against the permanent worker rating of 61.0. Gareth Osbourne, Managing Director at REC, said that the growth in temp and permie jobs was “good news for the economy, and is despite recent increases in interest rates.” He warned that such prosperous times would only continue if the government stands behind its pledge to enforce EU laws designed to protect and upgrade rights for temporary workers. Mr Osbourne stated: “If the government wants such news to continue it will need to ensure that it does not cave-in on the Agency Workers Directive, to protect the hundreds of thousands of temps employed in the UK.” The finer details from REC reveal there are currently 1.3m temporary workers using agencies in the country and a up to one million of those are deployed into frontline services every day. Report on Jobs is published by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and Deloitte, and provides a guide to the UK labour market, drawing on original survey data provided by recruitment consultancies and employers, as well as data on national newspaper recruitment advertising. Aug 6, 2004 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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