Contracting back on the up?
This month's industry statistics show an increase in weekly billings from contract workers for the second successive month, marking a further recovery from the declines seen in the last quarter of 2001.
Agencies' average weekly billings from contract workers rose for the second consecutive month in February following three successive monthly declines at the end of last year. Although the rate of growth remained only weak, attributed by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) to 'ongoing caution among employers,' the rise in billings once more 'reflects the preference for flexible workforces in the current economic climate.'
Agencies' contractor margins fell for the tenth month running in February with the strongest level of decline since REC began its Report on Jobs survey four-and-a-half years ago. REC attributed this to 'subdued demand [for contractors] from clients and strong competition within the recruitment industry.'
Contractors' average hourly rates also continued to rise last month, however, the rate of growth remained only modest and far weaker than seen throughout the survey's history prior to the slowdown of the fourth quarter of 2001. Weak growth of pay rates was primarily attributed simply to an excess supply of staff to fill jobs.
The availability of contract workers improved for the tenth consecutive month in February as recent lay-offs and subdued demand from employers resulted in fewer incidences of skill shortages. Having reached a REC survey high last November, the rate of improvement has eased over the past three months, falling to a six-month low in February, as demand for staff showed further signs of picking up.
Key contract skills reported to be in short supply in IT/ Computing are: Cad Technicians and Java Developers.
On the up?
Consultancies reported an increase in average salaries awarded to people placed in permanent jobs for the second consecutive month in February, following three successive monthly declines at the end of last year. The rise in pay pressures was simply attributed to stronger demand for staff. However, as with hourly rates of pay for contractors, growth of permanent salaries remained only modest.
The reduced rate of decline of permanent placements and the increase in billings from contractors was linked by consultants to a strengthening of demand for staff from employers.
IT was the only permanent sector to measure a fall in demand for staff.
Key permanent staff skills reported in short supply are C/C++ programmers.
According to JobStats the average hourly rate quoted for IT contractors is £20 per hour and £37,500 per annum for permanent employees.
"Due to the recent large-scale redundancies there are now many former permanent employees looking for work, who may be tempted to try their hand at contracting to hold their income level whilst they look for another job" - Graham Fisher, Senior Analyst at Bloor Research
The top five skills are:
Support 21.6 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £18 per hour/ £33,700 per annum
Management 17.6 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £26 per hour/ £42,000 per annum
Design 16.3 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £31 per hour/ £39,100 per annum
Unix 14.6 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £38 per hour/ £39,600 per annum
Finance 13.7 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £28 per hour/ £45,300 per annum
The top five locations are:
London 19.4 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £25 per hour/ £46,100 per annum
Berkshire 5.8 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £38 per hour/ £39,700 per annum
City 5.3 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £40 per hour/ £49,000 per annum
Surrey 4.2 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £18 per hour/ £37,600 per annum
Hampshire 3.5 per cent of jobs - Average rates: £20 per hour/ £33,800 per annum
According to TheSkillsMarket the:
Top five skills in demand are:
Rank Skill 1 Java 2 C++ 3 Unix 4 MS SQL Server 5 MS Visual Basic
Top five skills by rate are:
Rank Skill Rate 1 UML £57.27 2 Java Servlets £56.23 3 Java Server Pages £54.10 4 OO Analysis and Design £51.38 5 MS Project £51.31
Top five skills by salary are:
Rank Skill Rate 1 MS Project £45,540 2 OO Analysis and Design £44,800 3 Java Servlets £44,444 4 Visual Studio £44,227 5 JCL £41,666
Graham Fisher, Senior Analyst at Bloor Research, said: "Clients are still reluctant to take on staff despite the current upwards trend. Due to the recent large-scale redundancies there are now many former permanent employees looking for work, who may be tempted to try their hand at contracting to hold their income level whilst they look for another job. They are likely to be inexperienced compared to proper contractors with businesses though and it is unlikely they will understand the market properly unless they have dealt with contractors on a daily basis whilst in their permanent employee positions."
--
Richard Powell, UKTECH