 |
|
| CURRENT SECTION :: Jobs | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
|
 |
Spring, the UK's leading IT recruiter, looks back at the last month of 2007, and takes a glimpse at what's to come for IT contractors in the first quarter of 2008 . Traditionally, December experiences a seasonal downturn in the demand for IT contract staff. Spring , however, saw surprisingly high levels of demand last month. Although predictions are indicating that the market will see a downturn this year, the agency expects the first quarter of 2008 to maintain steady demand for IT contractors, based on the activity levels recorded throughout December. The highest demand for IT contractors may be experienced within the Public Sector. In particular, Defence should see continued high demand. In terms of other government organisations, we are expecting to see an increase in security related skills required. Even though we expect the Public Sector to display increased demand for IT contractors, traditionally, this area is not the most highly paid sector. We, therefore, do not expect the areas that have the highest demand to impact on contractors' pay rates. We expect that the highest rates will remain within the Investment Banking and Financial arena. The agency expects that in 2008, organisations will slightly lower their usage of IT contractors and this trend will probably be visible once the second quarter begins. This will be a result of cost-cutting leading to IT projects being put on hold. The performance of large UK financial organisations during the last quarter of 2007 was not nearly as poor as had previously been predicted. This leads us to question whether the expected downturn forecast for 2008 will materialise and deliver the impact on the market that has been feared. Spring feels that IT contract recruitment activity will reduce but not as significantly as some suggest. Should the IT contract market decline, organisations will be focusing on manning IT projects using permanent staff. The real focus will be on maintaining a lower cost model. As CUK has reported, any negative impact of the credit crunch will filter through more slowly than was initially anticipated and most likely, will be seen later on in 2008. There is obviously uncertainty relating to the Financial Services industry with particular focus on retail banking. One of Spring’s largest banking clients previously suggested that contract activity would decrease throughout the second half of 2007 due to the ‘credit crunch’. This decrease, however, was not as drastic as was expected, and we feel that this scenario will continue into 2008. Whilst the credit crunch has affected contractor spend and the economy in general, we believe that any downturn will not be significant and at worst will be slightly more subdued than the first half of 2007. Meanwhile, the order intake is, and continues to be, strong in the Defence and Public Sector industries, and we are predicting that 2008 will bring similar results to 2007. The issues of the wider economy traditionally have less impact on these sectors and have often been considered ‘recession-proof’. Jan 3, 2008 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] |