 |
|
| CURRENT SECTION :: News | UK's most visited IT Contractor Site - 250k unique visitors March 2008 |
|
 |
A policeman who drives hearses in his spare time, a City recruitment consultant who teaches pole dancing several nights a week, secretaries who organise childrens' parties at the weekend, hospital dieticians doubling as fat consultants. Just few examples of the sometimes-colourful jobs which people in middle-class occupations are doing in their spare time to cope with increasing living costs. Financial and investment advisors are more likely to moonlight as – financial and investment advisors. Another group whose spare-time work tends to be a little closer to the day job are IT professionals, though much of what is on offer is at bargain-basement rates, suggesting few business overheads are involved. Services offered at a fraction of the professional price include LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PHP/Perl/Python) development for £10 an hour, software "consultancy" for £20 an hour, database development at £25 an hour, and complete business websites designed and built for a couple of hundred pounds. According to City analysts Capital Economics, this is part of a rising trend: 1.15 million people now declare income from second jobs - up five per cent since the start of the credit crisis. The number could of course be much higher, according to Capital Economics' consumer and debt specialist, Vicky Redwood, since many of these people are unlikely to have drawn the taxman's attention to their extra-curricular activities. "We saw a sharp rise in the number of people with second jobs in previous recessions and that's starting to happen again," Redwood says. Capital Economics' findings follows a study from insurance firm AXA earlier this year, which found that 15 per cent of households earning more than £30,000 a year had been forced to get a second job or to send a non-working member of the household out to work in order to meet "high lifestyle costs". Savings and pension contributions have also been cut. Pawnbrokers are reporting a rise in middle-class people raising cash on golf clubs and Rolex watches, while restaurant takings are down as families cut back on leisure spending. Until recently sites such as setyourrate.com, which enable people to sell their services without the involvement of agencies, were used mostly by students and retired people. Xenios Thrasyvoulou of another such site, PeoplePerHour.com, says 7,000 users are advertising their services on his site. He says the number is growing at 35% a month. "We have a lot of people who say they are under-used at work and can go online and find extra to do." Among those who seem to be feeling the pinch are police officers. According to the Metropolitan Police Federation, the increase in the number who have registered second jobs is up five per cent, exactly matching the national trend. Some are working as chauffeurs, some selling stuff on eBay. Some, according to anecdotal evidence –and these are less likely to have registered their outside interests –are providing security advice, or working as club bouncers. But some have registered web site design as their second job, and this is where the story becomes less of an amusing insight into the things people resort to, to keep filling the tank of the 4x4, and more about a new pressure from amateurs undercutting legitimate professionals as the squeeze tightens on the contract market. Nick Langley Jul 15, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
|
|
   |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
| All content © Contractor UK Limited | http://www.contractoruk.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1[Register for News Letter] | [Privacy Statement] | [Terms of Use] | [Top of Page] |