Sixth successive slip in growth of IT contractor demand

The list of highly-sought-after IT skills lengthening is one of just a few bright spots for IT contractors, whose growth in demand dampened in September for the sixth month in a row.

Published this morning, the monthly Report on Jobs by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation scores IT contractor demand at 58.6, compared with 58.7 in August.

That means hopes of a surge in September (when candidates, hiring managers and senior stakeholders who approve external hires tend to return from holiday), have not been realised.

It also means that growth in IT contractor demand remains subdued, as the REC’s index shows its weakest score for such temporary technology workers in a little over two years.

But demand for freelance IT skills is still growing overall – in fact, any score on the REC index that is above 50 signals stronger appetite from end-users than in the previous month.  

Hourly rates of pay for temporary professionals – including but not limited to IT – grew as well, albeit at the weakest rate of growth for 18 months.

Although the report says pay still being on an upwards trajectory is likely to be “welcomed by [temporary] workers,” some in the IT sector are experiencing exactly the opposite.

Bank of America has told its entire temporary IT workforce in the UK to lower their rates or leave and, last night, ContractorUK was told of another bank preparing a similar ultimatum.

The details of this second ‘take it or leave’ rate cut are under wraps, yet IT contractors due to be hit may have sensed the bank’s cost-cutting approach, as it has already enforced furloughs.

Contractors who reply ‘non-acceptance’ to incoming emails outlining the rate cut will be better-placed to find contracts elsewhere if their skills are in AV, C#, Digital, Java or PHP.

It is these five skills that recruiters describe as ‘scarce’ on a contract basis, says the REC report, which also lists three of them - AV, C#, and Java - as scarce for full-time positions.

But such permanent recruiters are actually short of a total of eight different types of IT skills; those three, in addition to Cyber Security, Digital Media, .Net, Programmatic and UX.

Kevin Green, chief executive of the REC, reiterated his call for immigration policy to be reviewed: “We need the government to help businesses bring in talent from abroad,” he said.

His comments coincide with the confederation reporting that, in the first quarter of 2015, internet-based recruitment spending climbed by 5.9% on the same period in the previous year.