Contractors are likely to experience as softening of the contract market as the end of 2014 approaches. However, contractors in key skills areas such as IT and engineering can expect demand for their services to be sustained.
This is according to November 2014’s Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)/KPMG Report on Jobs, which also highlights that skills shortages are reaching potentially dangerous levels.
REC chief executive Kevin Green explains: “If there’s a cloud on the horizon for 2015 it’s the intensifying skills shortages which now spans many sectors and is particularly acute in high-skilled areas like engineering, IT and medicine.”
“In the longer term, skills shortages could jeopardise delivery of major infrastructure projects announced in this week’s Autumn Statement.”
According to ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin, the skills shortage presents those permanent employees with the right in-demand skills with an ideal opportunity to move into contracting.
“A good time to make the transition from employment into contracting is when the market is at a peak, both in terms of demand and rates,” says Chaplin. “This reduces the risk for those employees who are less confident about their skills and gives them the opportunity to try contracting and see if it is likely to be a long-term career choice.”
These skills shortages have not prevented contractor agency billings from increasing during November. This suggests that, at least during November, there were enough contractor candidates available to fill assignments and fuel the billings increase.
IT & Computing leads the contractor demand league table, with engineering in fourth place after blue collar and secretarial/clerical. Recruitment consultants highlight that contract skills in short supply include all engineering disciplines, as well as technicians.
In IT, recruiters cannot find enough candidates with businesses analysis and Java skills, and there is also a shortage of contractors with scientific skills.
The other core contracting disciplines have dropped down the demand league table, although all remain strongly in growth territory. Accounting and financial is in fifth place, followed by interims in seventh place and construction at the bottom of the table in ninth place.
Compliance, risk and internal audit are high on the list of skills in short supply in the financial sector, according to contractor agencies.