01 December 2008
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How is the current economic crisis affecting the UK IT Employment Marketplace?
This big and complicated question deserves a big and complicated answer but for those of you with a short attention span I will stick my neck out and summarise this article by saying:
When we are looking at employment the UK’s IT Industry is not as badly affected as many other industries (finance, construction etc) but the level of impact an IT worker may experience varies in severity; dependant on both your specialised skills and your location.
For those of you who would like to hear my thoughts in a little more detail…
It all boils down to Supply and Demand.
IT Workers in London (be it Unix Systems Administrators or C++ Developers) are more likely to find the employment market is now becoming tougher with less jobs and a lot more applicants per role due to the fallout from the financial meltdown and the redundancies / cutbacks made by the banks.
The Market will readjust!
Candidates with technical skills and financial industry knowledge have, historically, been harder to find and so have commanded a higher salary than their counterparts. A lot of these ex financial IT Workers will now be applying for non finance roles - increasing the supply for these positions and so reducing the market rate those candidates can also command. I would predict that, once stable, any future roles for IT staff in the Finance sector will be more in line with that of any comparable worker in other sectors as the Banks will be working hard not to be seen to be wasting money and are likely to be under much stricter regulations.
The phenomenon of the North / South Divide
The IT employment market in the North of England will be a different story in comparison. North West Employers that take on IT Staff fall into one of 3 categories each of which is likely to follow its own trend in behaviour but none of which are quite as highly affected as the intense London markets:
Employee’s of Large IT Organisations - Many large companies have Northern offices and these may still be at risk of redundancies. That risk is lower as a whole due to the fact that the larger IT Companies will (hopefully) have a range of clients and so be able to “ride out the storm” better than others. However these companies may still make a few cut backs due to a potential slow down in sales especially if they are relying on Construction or manufacturing which is big in the North.
Technical staff within other Industries - Despite the turbulent times organisations within construction, retail or manufacturing find themselves in there is a certain level of IT Infrastructure that will be essential for the day to day business of those that are staying afloat. Along with this there may be a tendency for companies to try and become leaner and “up to date” which obviously allows for more IT projects to be initiated so may help compensate for the IT Staff affected by company closures.
SME’s - These make up a large proportion of the IT employers in the North and this will be a turbulent time for such companies. However, opportunities are there for these companies to grow. Those with an efficient structure and the ability to market their services correctly may be able to make the most out of large businesses in the area looking to the internet or new systems to get them through these hard times and this may create vacancies perfect for those staff leaving the more “troubled” companies. However I do feel the North of England has a high proportion of small Web development companies and it is likely some effect will be felt in that market.
This Article is based on the sole opinion of Grant Bodie the Director of Mount Recruitment Ltd an IT Recruitment consultancy based in the Lancaster and Morecambe area of Lancashire with clients across the UK. Grant has a number of years experience working with both multinationals and SME’s on all aspects of their recruitment campaigns and places a lot of emphasis on building levels of trust and communication.
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