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Daily pay rates for IT contractors working for telecoms companies have experienced their fastest yearly rise since the industry collapse of 2000. Annual premiums of up to 16% are inflating pay from an average of £37 per hour last year to £43 per hour this year for the same work, says the latest ATSCo/SkillsMarket survey. The rise is due, in part, to strong demand for developers, engineers and managers who can build and oversee mobile and wireless devices for consumers and enterprise alike. Telecoms companies not only need to populate these devices with content; they also need the expertise to converge them with e-mail, internet and supporting applications. ATSCo said: “Demand for IT professionals skilled in middleware technologies is rising as individuals and businesses rely more on hand-held computers and wireless networks.” In the future, pay rates for IT-telecoms contractors are tipped to face more upward pressure, thanks to the adoption of more sophisticated gadgets like the Apple iPhone. Ann Swain, chief executive of ATSCo, believes the device could do for the consumer market what the BlackBerry is doing for the business one: generate huge demand for new software. And according to Alex Charles, director of SkillsMarket, employers and client companies are already playing their part in making mobile internet devices more attractive. He said: “One mobile operator has already put demand for its mobile internet package down to consumers wanting to access these sites away from their desks. “This has been heightened by the fact that many companies now block access to such sites on their corporate networks.” Yesterday, telecoms agents at Hudson, the recruitment firm, confirmed that consumers increasingly want a “combined offering of broadband, fixed and mobile phone services and access.” They said: “Applications is an important development area for all telecoms companies and enables a bundled service offering to be provided to customers.” David Judge, associate director of the firm’s telecoms recruitment division, added that pay increases for contractors, therefore, aren’t only down to a single device like the BlackBerry. He told CUK: “By 2006 the leading players in the telecoms market had significantly reduced previously inflated daily rates for contractors and were really focused effectively managing expenditure. “High daily rates still exist but are driven either by ranking of contract or skill shortages in the marketplace. Therefore the market is being led by demand and the converged services the telecoms companies need to supply to the everyday consumer. It’s in these areas that rates are rising.” But Phil Virgo, strategic advisor to the Institute for the Management of Information Systems, said the 16% pay rises are “partly because there are so few competent [IT] staff on the market.” Recruiters at Hudson partly agreed. “The skill shortage is often found in the IT-Telecoms axis of knowledge” Mr Judge said yesterday. “Understanding and experience of both areas is rarer than perceived and this niche is driving daily rates up. “Additionally managing and propositioning this offering is also key and therefore another niche for monetary increase.” In the permanent jobs market, demand for telecoms specialists is less obvious, but companies have fattened pay packets for IT workers skilled at integrating services, IMIS said. Mr Virgo explained: “The actual number being sought for permanent [IT] posts does not appear to be much more than this time last year. “But the salaries on offer for senior network support engineers were up eight per cent in the second quarter this year, more than double the average for IT staff as a whole.” Rates for IT contractors have come on since then: technical staff are typically earning annual premiums of between five and ten per cent, Hudson said. Overall, freelance IT workers on its database are earning 15% premiums, with the biggest annual rises reserved for project managers, business analysts and technical consultants. This is despite a ‘poll of polls’ of business confidence published on Tuesday showing that British business is at its lowest level since November 2005. August was singled out as the month when the UK’s corporate leaders became significantly less optimistic about the future of the economy, the poll by BDO Stoy Hayward found. Yesterday, one contract staffing agency suggested this economic uncertainty has, so far, failed to dent healthy spending levels across the telecoms industry. But in line with forecasts by the Management Consultancies Association, the agent said most budgets were for efficiencies relating to current systems, like consolidation and outsourcing, rather than on new systems development. Aug 30, 2007 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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