 |
|
| CURRENT SECTION :: Market Reports | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
|
 |
The new year brings new hope, and as our January market stats demonstrate, employers have resolved to spend their newly acquired budgets on a proactive hunt for contracting talent. The average rate for the ten most commonly advertised skills has leapt 18% since November’s market report. Then, the top ten brought an average rate of £23.35, having tumbled from £26.10 in the six months from May 2004. The average rate now sits at £27.56. The rates boost follows a similar seasonal pattern as last year. Jeff Brooks, Chair of the IT sector for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and Operations Director for Parity explains, “The upswing since Christmas looks like it may be a replay of last year when we saw a pick up through January to March and good rate growth, until a topping out around August / September. You do typically see a pick up in January and we are yet to see if this is a seasonal trend or if there really is a second wave of projects kicking in, but the signs are encouraging.” In terms of job titles, there has been little change since November. The same types of roles remain popular, though demand for consultants is rising, along with their rates. Although, because that particular job title covers such a wide range of disciplines, this upward move does not necessarily indicate a particular trend. The need for developers and analysts has fallen slightly. Although both these roles appear in more than 18% of advertised vacancies, both are down roughly half a percentage point and £1 per hour (to £30.50 and £21.10 respectively) on November’s figures. A clearer trend is apparent in the comms arena, where the demand for 3G skills has significantly increased. That proficiency has catapulted 42 places up the overall rankings and firmly back in to the comms and networking top ten, with SMS heading the other way. 3G appears in more than 1% of all advertised vacancies, with an hourly rate of £27.80. While this percentage ranking may appear low it is worth noting that that TCP/IP - the most requested networking skill - appears in just 2.4% of adverts. SQL, Java and C++ remain the most popular programming languages, though the trend here is for more junior contracting positions, and rates mirror the slight fall across all development roles. While frequency of advertising for these skills remains almost unchanged, average rates have fallen from £30 to £29 for SQL, £39 to £36 for Java and from £39 to £38 for C++. As predicted by commentators for this column in November, demand for C# is increasing, with that skill now appearing in more than 3% of advertised vacancies. The greatest increase in this area though is in demand for ABAP, which edges in to the top ten programming languages at number nine, rising 24 places overall. The rate commanded by ABAP developers (more than £69 per hour on average) reflects this, and the continuing trend for high rates for SAP technologies. SAP HR and WM hold their places in the top ten of most lucrative skills at £75 and £72.50 respectively, while MM and SEM drop out. SAPscript and BAPI are new entries at the top of this list, commanding average hourly rates of £90. While other skills such as Six Sigma and the role of lead designer also figure prominently with £70 per hour averages, the infrequency of their occurance (each appears in less than one tenth of a percentage point of advertised vacancies) suggests individual roles or small projects have been advertised. SAP technologies remain the best payers. Windows, UNIX and NT remain the most commonly requested operating systems, with XP the biggest climber in this area at number eight, commanding £19 per hour and appearing in 20% of roles. The top order of database and business intelligence systems remains unchanged, with SQL Server, Oracle 9i and generic data warehousing steady as the most in demand skills. The greatest movement here is for ETL experience, where rates have moved to £41 per hour. For those in search of overseas work, the disappointing news is that demand for contractors in Spain has fallen away. Germany, however, remains awash with opportunity. It is the sixth most commonly stipulated location, appearing in almost 3% of advertised roles, and offering average rates of £40 per hour. The best rates in blighty (£46 per hour) are to be found in Brentford and Bournemouth. However, the relative infrequency of these locations suggests small (well paying) projects. Matt Farquharson Feb 2, 2005 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
|
|
   |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All content © Contractor UK Limited | [Register for News Letter] | [Privacy Statement] | [Terms of Use] | [Top of Page] |