State of the Market

[BigJohn]

Long-time gighunters from the summer lull - anyone still looking? What's your running total of months out now?

Last week of August to date


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

The answer to this is simple.

The pure-bred rec. agencies are afraid that consultancies will eat their lunch this time around and the war on Linked-in has kicked-off because the consultancies have started to fire PDF IR35 focused papers out to CIO's which throw the recruitment agencies under the bus.

Many of the mid-range and low-end pure recruitment firms don't have the brainpower to do this transition hence you will have seen another tell-tale sign that the rec. firms are looking for CTO's to come onboard as I have seen the advertisements.

This is why there is now a burst of activity and we could see some recruitment desks fold if they do not adapt and yes, the recruitment firms are late, the consultancies are not, the longer the rec. firms leave this the more it plays into the hands of the consultancies.

Funnily enough, the two lads on the pay-as-you-go mobile phones running a recruitment 'agency' might be winners here too as there will be a bigger demand for specialist units that can head-hunt and work on a commission basis with the resourcing teams inside consultancies.

I haven't found this to be the case, for the past few months all my agency stuff has been super IR35 focused. There's almost no need to even bother reviewing contracts because they're all boilerplate outside IR35 ones direct from QDOS, plus I've been given formal schedules of work without having to ask and most agents have chatted about IR35 when they ask how the market is and I say it's slow, and seem to know what it is (as opposed to huh? what's that?).

IMO they've already tooled up and are all set to be able to completely and safely ignore it.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I haven't found this to be the case, for the past few months all my agency stuff has been super IR35 focused. ......

IMO they've already tooled up and are all set to be able to completely and safely ignore it.

Interesting. Obviously we don't all deal with same pimps - I haven't heard anything much from any of the ones I deal with about their marvellous plans for the new rules.

[CheeseSlice]

I haven't found this to be the case, for the past few months all my agency stuff has been super IR35 focused. There's almost no need to even bother reviewing contracts because they're all boilerplate outside IR35 ones direct from QDOS, plus I've been given formal schedules of work without having to ask and most agents have chatted about IR35 when they ask how the market is and I say it's slow, and seem to know what it is (as opposed to huh? what's that?).

IMO they've already tooled up and are all set to be able to completely and safely ignore it.

Do you deal mainly with Public sector or private sector, or either?

I imagine the agency community is going through a mass 'download' with the ins and outs of IR35 right now.
Their poor brains...

[sira]

I'm on the reg/compliance side in FS (non-IT). Gig's ending in December.

I can count the number of gigs outside ir35 on my hands at the moment. Very few calls from pimps (in comparison to the past) and perhaps even worse, there is also a very low number of perm jobs aswell.

Will be hitting the bench in January, and not might hope in sight.

Has anyone ever turned to day trading or starting a small business when on the bench?

[PCTNN]

Got a call for a 4 months role with possible extension, immediate start, at one of the big banks.

When asked, the agent said the role is outside ir35 "for now".

4 months lead us to end of February 2020. I guess that's when they'll switch it to inside.

Not looking good out there now.

[GhostofTarbera]

Just off the phone to an agent (London banking sectors) he was asking me for any leads !!!

He said 2 years ago they had 2000+ roles (contractor and perm), last year at this time they had 500 ish, now he just has a few java / full stack / cloud roles

he said clients are still extending existing contractors, but not so many as before, meaning every month thousands of contractors are joining the hunt for non existent roles, guys he could place in 10 mins a year ago, now wait with others good guys on the bench (each never being out of a contract before)

In more good news, he has regular meetings with big clients to see what programs are in there pipelines so they can prepare CV’s etc when then need 50/100+ contractors in a short time - again all the pipelines are empty

I asked about perm roles - he just laughed and said unless an existing client offers you a perm role, there is zero point applying for one as you are up against top not permies and clients seldom believe you now want to become a permie for the sake of it on 1/2 the salary, they think you will jump ship at 1st opportunity- and why take the risk when they have 50 permie applications




Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[krytonsheep]

now he just has a few java / full stack / cloud roles

Sounds scary. For contractors in the finance industry, what options do they have? Is there a shortage of finance contractors in other countries like Dubai?

[ContractorHardman]

For this reason, at the end of my current contract, I am just going to wind up and go travelling for 6 months!

[GhostofTarbera]

Sounds scary. For contractors in the finance industry, what options do they have? Is there a shortage of finance contractors in other countries like Dubai?

I worked in Dubai for a few years, great place to work, company I worked for had a golf course on site + gun range a short walk away, and a canteen on the beach !!!

Alas no shortage these days


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum