Market Report: Rare skills quickly growing in demand

Nick Wells from Jobstats, the IT market statistics service, provides his own unique take on what skill sets are in demand and why more agencies are demanding only candidates with degrees need apply...

Market trends

Nick said: "Things are still getting worse but not quite as quickly as before. The summer is generally a bad time for finding jobs but with September here and the schools back we shouldn't see the 'summer-holiday effect' any more. If September and October show a levelling out we can safely say that the recession has bottomed out but at the moment it's too early to say."

Skills growing fast

"Among the fastest growing skills over the past few months are the Microsoft offerings .Net and C#. Active Directory is also growing quickly. Oracle 9i and 11i have both grown rapidly ever since they first started appearing in job adverts. These are currently rare skills that are showing a steady growth in demand; the rates are already reflecting this."

Why do so many adverts ask for a degree nowadays?

"Up to the end of 2000 the proportion of adverts mentioning that the candidate should have a degree was static (falling if anything) at around 4.5 per cent. Since then it has become steadily more and more popular and now over 10 percent of adverts ask for candidates with a degree. This is largely because requiring a degree makes a convenient filter with which to exclude some of the (always too many) applicants that there will be for a job. The current desire for graduates reflects the current state of the market and not a sudden increase in the academic requirements of most jobs. When we start to see the demand for candidates with degrees start to fall that will be a good sign that things are improving again."

Suits you

"Another interesting trend is the move back to wearing suits in the office. According to the latest Aziz Management Communications Index there has been a decrease in the number of companies allowing their staff to dress casually all the time. It now stands at 24 per cent from 37 per cent last year. The removal of non-monetary rewards is just a further sign of the current state of the market."

According to Jobstats, the latest average rates for freelance IT workers are £20 per hour and £36,600 per annum for permanent employees.

The five most popular skills are:

Management 31.8 per cent - £25 per hour, £41,000 per annum

Support 25.5 per cent - £17 per hour, £33,600 per annum

Analyst 18.7 per cent - £24 per hour, £36,200 per annum

Design 18.2 per cent - £28 per hour, £37,800 per annum

Finance 17.3 per cent - £31 per hour, £46,400 per annum

The five most popular locations are:

London 27.6 per cent - £22 per hour, £44,100 per annum

City 6.1 per cent - £28 per hour, £49,500 per annum

Berkshire 3.9 per cent - £21 per hour, £37,800 per annum

Surrey 3.9 per cent - £19 per hour, £36,500 per annum

South East 3.3 per cent - £33 per hour, £39,300 per annum