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| CURRENT SECTION :: Market Reports | |
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April typically brings good news for contractors, with new budgets freshly allocated and programme directors eager to spend them. But, this month brings a slight, noticeable, dip in average rates. The hourly average for the ten most commonly requested contractor skills in March was £30.93. This month, that has fallen to £30.03, a drop of 3%. This is a low for the year, which to date has seen average rates narrowly edge upwards. The figure marks the lowest average since November last year, when rates sat at £29.75. But, the market remains healthier than at the same time last year, when average rates were £27.01. That this dip should come in a month that normally brings good news is a concern though. It is too early to know whether this is the beginning of a long downward trend, but it is not encouraging. Much of this fall can be attributed to a dip in average SAP rates. In February this year, these were £46.29. This figure comes from the average of all jobs advertised with the word “SAP” in their text. While this can cover anyone from the very junior to project directors it is a useful benchmark. In two months, this figure has fallen 16% to the £38.68 it sits at now. Oracle roles have barely moved over the same period, but have been moving steadily upwards prior to that. This may be the result of Oracle’s purchases of JDEdwards and Peoplesoft bearing fruit for contractors. The SAP movement is slightly disconcerting, given the new modules it has out. But that market can be very volatile, with heavy paying senior jobs skewing the averages. But both are up on where they were 12 months ago; SAP up 5% on average day rates (£387 to £404,) Oracle up 3% from £382 to £393. The long term figures are not so good for those in telecoms, however. Here, some headline skills have suffered over the last year, and continue to do so. Firewall roles have tumbled, dropping by more than 8%, from £28 to £26.04 in the last year. More worrying is that its rate reached £29.85 as recently as February this year. This would appear to be at odds with the current focus of many firms on security issues. And those working in mobile telecoms are enjoying a rates resurgence, following a tough year. Since January, 3G rates have moved from £31.38 to £34.53. GSM averages have remained steady, nudging up just three pence from February to £33.83. These movements are of interest because these two skills have suffered over the last year. Rates have bounced around dramatically, but tended to head downwards. Today’s averages are still 13% below those of a year ago for 3G, with GSM 12% over the same period. There is some better long term news though. It appears that employers are reining in their spending on training for permanent staff. One report this month from Imis highlights the growing IT skills gap and lack of willingness by firms to train their IT staff. The Olympic, ID cards and NHS IT modernisation were all highlighted as vast extra drains on the IT skills pool. Karen Price, chief executive of E-Skills reckons, “we are back in another growth cycle that will lead to an acute skills shortage.” Philip Virgo, strategic adviser at Imis even went so far as to suggest that, "the UK could face a digital winter of discontent," because of the lack of trained staff. All of which, is good news for contractors of course. Matt Farquharson Data source: www.itjobswatch.co.uk May 3, 2006 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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