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Recruitment of IT contractors by British financers has beaten all stated expectations, halting a consecutive monthly decline in the number of IT freelancers that they hire. Financial staff screening firm Powerchex said IT contractor job offers in January rose by almost 30% compared with December, when they went into the red by 75%. Yet the number of IT contractors the firm screened last month was down 68% on the same period in 2008, suggesting City IT hires are “definitely not back to normal.” Reflecting on January’s upturn, Powerchex’s founder Alexandra Kelly told CUK it may be that financers think that they shed too many IT contractors in December. Then, the number of IT contractor job offers was “dismal, so much so that investment bankers, stockbrokers, insurers and hedge fund managers were all likelier recruits. Now, however, some hiring freezes have melted, projects are being looked at afresh and related staff are being seen as vital for “competitive advantage,” Ms Kelly said. Financial services companies taking this approach with IT contractors in January were mainly serving the investment banking and insurance sectors. “There do seem to be signs of some increased hiring for contractors in the financial services space,” testified Paul Elworthy, financial IT recruitment director at Hudson. “But I would loathe to refer to it as a recovery quite yet. January is usually the beginning of the new budgets so there is a little more freedom to hire so the change from December to January can be quite a positive one. “I would put it down to a seasonal trend but that said, we are seeing more positivity from a number of our clients in their hiring, particularly for IT contractors”. Hudson said 70% of candidates it placed last month were freelance, with demand strongest for Subject Matter Experts in specific technologies, product lines or disciplines. Feb 26, 2009 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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