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| CURRENT SECTION :: Market Reports | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
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Last month saw a tumbling headline hourly average rate caused mainly by the emergence of .NET at the expense of more costly architect roles. The ten most commonly requested job titles remain the same as last month (see our market stats page) and hourly averages have barely moved. At the end of last month it was £30.49. At the end of February, it has barely changed, edging down fractionally to £30.42. The only role to see any significant movement was project manager. The people tasked with meeting the budgets and hitting deadlines are obviously in favour this month. Average hourly rates have gone from £39.91 to £42.39 over the last four weeks; a healthy 6% rise. Business analyst have made the biggest move the other way, seeing their average rates fall from £33.60 at the end of January to £31.83 today; a fall of almost 6%. Project management roles are among the most fluctuating in our surveys, primarily because of the often ad-hoc nature of the work and the vastly differing levels of responsibility. A PM on a project worth £100,000 will expect to earn plenty more than one on a project worth £10,000. It has been a good 12 months for project managers over all, rates moving from a flat £38 in February last year, a rise of 12%. Part of the reason for increased demand for project managers relates to the increasing trend for offshoring. While this simple word can strike worry into many contractors, it is not necessarily causing the UK market to lose jobs, just the nature of those jobs to change. Lower level support roles and the like are the ones that are transferred abroad. IT jobs with business skills – like project management – stay here and see rates rise. The daily rates of desktop support engineers are a good example. While PMs have seen their rates rise by 12% since last February, the average daily rate of desktop support engineers has fallen by the same percentage, from £164 to £144. The daily rate is quoted here as it is more often quoted for more senior contractors. The solution, for any contractors worried about their future is to learn more about the bigger picture. Matt Brown, Managing Director of the giant group points out that, “contractors are recognising the need to climb up the skills ladder as lower skilled jobs are be sent offshore.” They are, he claims, beginning to “acquire more management experience,” as they see “Contractors at the higher end benefiting from double digit pay increases, whilst IT workers in support roles are seeing their pay stagnate or even decline”. It could be the beginning of a step away from contractors as specialists to contractors with broader skills, more in line with their permie colleagues. Telecomms contractors have had a good month too. Average rates for the ten most commonly requested Communication and Networking Skills have risen by a healthy 11% over the last month, from £23.90 to £ 26.63. Seven of the ten most commonly requested comms skills have risen in value in the last four weeks, with just SAN, VPN and intranet roles edging slightly downward. Everything else has seen a rise of around £1 per hour. Encouraging news also comes from the sector skills council e-skills UK, which claims that the number of comms staff (perm and contract) working in all sectors in the UK rose by around 15% through 2006. Perhaps a more worrying concern for contractors is the general flatness across IT markets. At this point last year, average rates were at £30.87. While the last 12 months have seen some generous peaks, contractors should be worried that the default rates are so low. To see rates plateau consistently at around £30 is not encouraging. Particularly as demand for contract talent in some areas appears to be edging downward. Matt Farquharson Data source: www.itjobswatch.co.uk Feb 28, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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