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Britain’s leading report into recruitment trends shows demand for IT contractors in September has risen at the fastest rate for over six years. Temporary billings for IT professionals has climbed to a record high of 65.8 - the fifteenth consecutive monthly rise and the strongest gains out of eight key industries. Demand for permanent technical staff also remains buoyant, achieving 63.9 on the sector index but falling third in its category of eight. Strong levels of billing for both IT sectors are explained by a recruitment drive from ISPs, hiring staff to meet current and anticipated demand. The industry has also reported a shortage of skills in Java and C++ programming as well as a shortage of contract Software programmers. This is according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which shows UK clients have requested temporary or contract IT workers at the highest rate for over six years. Skill shortages and declining availability of temporary workers has kept pay rates high but not as steep as the number of declared ‘permie’ pay rises. Private sector contracting has risen in demand by the same amount it grew last month, with manufacturing plummeting to record lows of demand. The overall healthy state of the temporary market has prompted survey analysts to warn of the risk posed to the labour market from the EU Agency Workers Directive. “These latest figures are good news for workers, with demand for staff continuing to rise across all sectors,” said Gareth Osborne, managing director of the REC. “Temps in particular are clearly playing a crucial role at the heart of British industry and that is why the UK government cannot allow the future of temporary workers to threatened by the EU Agency Workers Directive. However, as the Directive currently stands, hundreds of thousands of jobs across Europe are at risk.” Overall, agencies said demand for permanent staff in September was high at 62.8, compared to temporary/contract demand at 61.8 - a marginal decline on last month’s survey. Bret Walsh, analyst at Deloitte consulting, said the Jobs report showed the number of new jobs created by firms has increased markedly in September, despite signs of “peaking in the rate of growth of job creation” becoming more apparent. He explained that for September, suitably skilled candidates using consultancies to move to new positions had benefited by negotiating higher starting salaries, as “employers battled to attract rare talent.” Oct 7, 2004 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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