14 May 2010
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UK IT Recruitment - What’s the market like?
A day doesn’t go by when I’m not asked the question “So what’s the market like at the moment?” and last year the answer was more than a little depressing! Despite IT Recruitment holding up well against other industries, it was still hit hard by the recession. However 2010 is looking much more promising.
During the first quarter of 2010 the IT jobs market for permanent employees increased at its fastest rate for over three years. This is the third consecutive quarter that has seen higher demand. This increase coincides with the UK coming out of recession during the latter part of 2009. However compared with the start of the financial crisis IT recruitment has more than halved, and is still down at a level not seen since January 2004!
A few statistics for you:
• Contractors vacancies up by 10.1% since the previous quarter. As contractors are always the first to suffer in a recession, they are also historically the first to recover.
• Over 73% of all IT permanent jobs advertised were in the southern and western regions of England
• There is currently a clear North/South divide. In the south the number of jobs advertised increased by 5.1% whilst in the north recruitment remained virtually unchanged with just 0.05% more jobs. Contract vacancies show the same North/South split.
What’s hot
According to both reports and my own experience the skills most in demand in the Lancashire area are SQL Server, PHP, .NET, MySQL, SQL and SEO. Roles relying heavily on these skills are on the rise and these skill sets have been pretty resilient throughout. It is a job seekers market if these are your specialist areas so any potential employers should move fast to get the best candidates!
What’s not
There is a lower level of demand for the higher paid IT consulting, IT manager or team leader positions with roles above £35k pa being few and far between in this area. They will take longer to pick up although they are in other regions of the country so there are signs of recovery!
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Grant Bodie is the Director of Mount Recruitment Ltd an IT Recruitment Consultancy who offer a range of recruitment packages for large and small employers.
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