Financial hirers all but hold IT contractor job offers

A weakening in financial IT contractor jobs over the last four weeks may suggest the City-dominated market’s intake of freelance IT skills is actually stabilising at a higher level, a staff screening firm says.

For being only slight, and for following two successive monthly rises, the dip in the number of financial IT contracts agreed in June puts the total almost on a par with those agreed in May, Powerchex said.

In that month, growth in new IT contractor jobs at banks and financial institutions was not expected by the London-based vetting firm, partly as offers in the previous month (April) surged by 75%.

But the number of contract IT staff through its doors with new placements has since held steady.

This is why its overall figure for IT contractors, relating to this second quarter, is a “better reflection” of the current “sentiment” among financial IT hirers than its monthly set for June.

If it is accurate, the firm’s reading bodes well for financial IT contract-seekers: its stock of new IT contractor screenings for quarter two came in at more than 60% higher than it was in quarter one.

Even gloomy news that cash-conscious financial employers expect their trading volumes to weaken, in a nod to a CBI forecast, was said to have steered IT openings towards freelancers. 

Thanks to the cost concerns, the ‘clear business case’ of temporary staff not on the payroll - or adding to overheads, is being made, explained Powerchex’s founder Alexandra Kelly.

And the other IT recruitment trigger – fears of trading volumes dropping – is that financial firms believe that then, “the quality of the teams will be the key to performance”.  

Of those financers staffing up with IT contractors, she reflected: “The number of offers in June has maintained the level reached in May, perhaps indicating that the demand is stabilising at a higher level than we have seen”.

Moreover, on an annual basis, the market “is very much on a par…perhaps indicating some form of seasonal position, but last June appeared to be an outlier from the trend while this June is much more consistent.”

Insurers undoubtedly account for much of that improvement – and indeed the annual growth, as the June figures attest that the overall pool of financial IT contractor jobs widened by 2%.

"The insurance sector is having to invest heavily in IT systems to become compliant with the Solvency II regulations,” Ms Kelly said, chiming with analysis by ReThink Recruitment.

“This is pushing up the demand for contractors especially those who have a mix of experience and qualifications."

Yet the impetus is only temporary, so demand for IT contractors not only from insurers, but from financial services as a whole, may “drop off” once their systems are made ‘SII-ready’, sometime before December 2012 when the rules take effect.