UK
On the face of it, the market for IT contractors appears to be rapidly deteriorating, with job offers down by half on this time last year. But there’s no need to panic just yet – investment banks remain keen to recruit interims in certain areas.
According to pre-employment screening firm Powerchex, in May there was a 50% reduction in the number of positions secured by financial services IT contractors on the comparable period in 2009.
This mirrors the picture for contract IT workers generally, with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation reporting May to be the slowest month of 2010 so far.
But is it really that bad? It seems unlikely that after a nearly a 12-month surge, contractor recruitment would suddenly fall off a cliff.
“The more strategic roles – project and programme managers and business analysts – have slowed dramatically,” says Julianne Brooks, director, head of contract recruitment at The JM Group. “However, investment banks have been recruiting contractors for development roles, particularly within fixed income and equity derivatives. It seems after a prolonged period of analysis, banks are finally getting their heads down on development.”
Recruitment group SThree reported a 22% drop contractor recruitment during the six months to the end of May, and said that “itchy feet” among IT staff is driving demand for contractors, rather than a growth in technology activity.
Brooks confirms that the majority of recruitment for project managers and business analysts in the contractor space has been due to movement, rather than growth.
However, there’s also a sustained demand for contractors with specific vendor application knowledge, suggests Johnny Walker, associate head of interim markets at financial recruiters Jared James. Those with skills around Summit, Sophis, Openlink, Calypso and Murex can still command high rates, he says.
“Demand still exceeds supply,” he says. “This is true for programme and project managers, business analysts and developers.”
On one hand you say:
“The more strategic roles – project and programme managers and business analysts – have slowed dramatically,”
And then you say:
“Demand still exceeds supply,” he says. “This is true for programme and project managers, business analysts and developers.”
Duh..