IT contractor jobs index plateaued in June

The labour market for temporary IT professionals failed to grow in June by any more – or any less – than it did in May, a staffing index shows.

In its latest monthly Report on Jobs, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) scored demand for IT contractors at 60.3, compared with 60.3 in the previous report.

Although that means IT contractor demand is still growing (a 50+ score signals more growth than a month ago) it represents the first time this year that the growth rate has hit a plateau.

This may explain why Bernard Brown, partner at KPMG which co-authors the report, said the jobs market in June – including for IT contractors it seems – was “somewhat lethargic.”

“The number of skilled workers looking for new roles fell considerably…, stifling hiring activity”, he said. “Recruiters are struggling to fill vacancies for everything from software engineers to sales.”

The biggest struggle in the temporary IT candidate market is around Development, Digital, Gaming, Web, PHP and Java contractors, as these six were in “short supply” last month.

But as Mr Brown said, software engineers are among the many candidates scarce in the full-time IT jobs market, which is also shy of .Net, Business Analysis, Testing and Cloud skills.

Yet for the suitably-trained, there is an upside. “The lack of qualified candidates is…driving up salaries,” he said. “The right individual [is] able to command a significant premium from businesses anxious to secure their skills and experience.”