Contractor demand in Scotland outpaced the demand for permanent employees during November 2014.
Showing that vacancies and rates continue to increase alongside falling candidate numbers, November 2014’s Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs suggests that now would be a good time for employees considering making the transition into contracting to make their move.
According to ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin, Scotland’s contract market has three centres of excellence to attract contractors: “Aberdeen is Europe’s oil and gas capital for oil and gas contractors, Dundee is the UK’s video games centre for IT contractors and Edinburgh is next in line after London as a leading financial sector for finance and accounting contractors.”
The regional pattern of Scotland’s contracting market confirms that these three cities offer buoyant prospects for contractors. Aberdeen “noted the steepest drop in candidate supply”, Dundee saw the strongest inflation of hourly pay and Edinburgh experienced the fastest increase in contractor agency billings.
Despite the strength of the contract market, Bank of Scotland chief economist Donald MacRae believes that Scotland’s overall labour market growth is slowing: “November's Report on Jobs showed further growth in the number of people appointed to jobs although the pace of increase eased to its lowest level for seven months. These results indicate Scotland's economy growing but slowing.”
IT & computing is second in the demand league table, after nursing/medical/care, showing stronger growth in demand than the previous month. Despite slowing demand growth, engineering and construction has moved into second place, as accounts and financial has slipped down two places to fifth place.
The interim market is the poorest performer, remaining in seventh place. The sector remained in growth territory during November, but experienced another fall in growth rates.
Interestingly, the interim market in the wider UK contract market significantly outperformed Scotland’s during November. Scottish interim management contractors struggling to stay in contract should consider relocating to other parts of the UK for work.
Candidate numbers continue to fall, but at the slowest rate since May 20014. The report highlights that: “Twice as many recruitment consultancies recorded a deterioration in temporary candidate availability (exactly 35%) as registered an improvement (18%).”