Payquest News
More IT Contractors finding work!
Long term joblessness among IT contractors has slumped dramatically over the last six months, as business investment in IT gathers pace, a recent study shows.
According to the group's database, the number of IT contractors who were out of work for three months or more fell by one third in the first quarter of this year.
Six months ago, such 'long term joblessness' among the IT contractors surveyed stood at 10.1 per cent, compared with the latest reading of 6.8 per cent, the survey said.
Explaining the improving prospects for jobbing IT contractors, the group pointed to official data showing investment in IT leapt 9 per cent in the last quarter of 2009.
This injection by businesses, specifically in hardware and software, has resulted in bigger IT workloads at a time when the IT teams to execute them have been cutback.
“Contractors are often the first to be let go in a recession, but they are usually the first back in the door as the economy recovers,".
"IT directors are still wary about increasing headcounts, so contractors offer a relatively low-risk way of increasing capacity without incurring additional... [overheads], as demand recovers.”
The current climate favouring temporary workers, who are easier than their permanent counterparts to dismiss if conditions worsen, has not been lost on contractors.
According to the findings, the proportion of IT contractors who expect an increase in their take-home pay in the next year stands at two-thirds, up from 61 per cent six months ago.
Any increase, though, will be from the lower rates that client companies insisted upon over the past 18 months, which saw rate reductions of around, or slightly over, 20 per cent.
But even financial services, the sector most notorious for 'take it or leave it' pay cuts, is in recovery mode, the first quarter findings indicate.
Twenty six per cent of the IT contractors said they expected the finance sector to generate them the most work, compared with 22 per cent six months ago.
That renewed confidence in financial services, at a time when cuts are incoming in the public sector, means it is now the most likely sector to provide for IT contractors over the next year.
"The financial services industry is traditionally one of the heaviest users of IT skills, so with banks now beginning to increase investment in IT, contractors should benefit enormously, " .
"The wave of mergers in the sector precipitated by the credit crunch and the resultant need to integrate IT systems is a major factor behind the resurgence in demand for IT contractors in the financial services sector.