Contracting demand surge: engineers and IT contractors in top three
Engineering and IT contractors are in first and third place respectively on the contract and temporary worker demand tables for December 2010, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)/KPMG Report on Jobs. Overall demand for contractors rose for the seventeenth successive month, with growth at a six-month high. Bernard Brown, a KPMG Partner, says the figures potentially signal a turning point for the economy: “The latest data suggests again that the UK job market is on the road to recovery as growth of permanent placements remained solid and demand for staff rose strongly.” More…
Online demand for IT contractors in 2010 ends on a high
Online demand for IT contractors in 2010 ended on a high, with the Monster Employment Index (MEI) for December 2010 showing an increase of 7% month on month and 26% year on year – the second highest annual growth rate of all 21 industry sectors. Despite overall demand falling slightly in December, the index reports that London was experiencing ‘large concentrations of IT and professional service job availability’. “There is a clear improvement in the state of the UK job market in comparison to where we were in 2009,” says Monster’s Isabelle Ratinaud. More…
Contractors defy downturn in services sector
Contractors continue to experience increased demand in the services sector despite the falling employment levels identified in the December 2010 Markit/Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) Purchasing Managers Index (PMI). Services sector employment sector was down for the third successive month but, in contrast, evidence from the REC/KPMG Report on Jobs and Monster Employment Index point to strong contractor hiring. December’s CIPS Services PMI also shows the headline Business Activity Index fell to 49.7 in December, compared to the previous month’s index of 53. A figure below 50 signifies a fall in service sector output, the first since April 2009.. More…
Economic uncertainty continues to benefit contractors as survey forecasts fragile recovery
Contractors are likely to continue to benefit from economic uncertainty as many organisations continue to choose low risk contractors over permanent employees in the face of fragile recovery forecasts. According to the British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Forecast, contract and temporary staff recruitment is above average and permanent employee recruitment is below average. The manufacturing sector continues to grow its workforce, including hiring contractors, at a record pace but employment growth in the services sector is weak.
IT contractor demand boosted by financial services activity growth
IT contractors have benefited from strong activity growth levels in the financial services sector. And this growth is forecast to continue in the first quarter of 2011, albeit at a slower pace. So says the Confederation of British Industry (CBI)/PricewaterhouseCoopers Financial Services Survey, which also reports that employment in the sector has fallen sharply. As the largest consumer of IT contractors outside the software development industry, the fortunes of the financial services sector have a significant impact on IT contractor demand.
Manufacturing, and manufacturing contractors, “set to be at the heart of the … growth the economy needs”
The importance to the UK’s economic recovery of manufacturing and the contractors of all disciplines working in the sector has been highlighted by manufacturers’ organisation the EEF. Its Economic Prospects 2011 report forecasts growth in the sector to reach 3.5%, compared to a “solid if unspectacular 2.1% growth for the economy as a whole“. Contractors working in the manufacturing sector could be in for a bumper year, as EEF Chief Economist Lee Hopley explains: “Manufacturing now looks set to be at the heart of the rebalanced growth the economy needs.”
UK contracting businesses likely to pay less tax by staying put
Contracting businesses domiciled and paying taxes in the UK pay less tax than nearly all other European and international contracting locations. PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PWC) Paying Taxes 2011 study reveals that, with a total tax rate of 37.3%, the UK has the 76th lowest total tax rate of the 183 tax jurisdictions surveyed, lower than most European nations and the United States (46.8%) and Australia (47.9%). PWC’ “total tax rate” reflects the total tax burden a small and medium sized business can expect to shoulder in a given jurisdiction. HMRC can take credit from the fact that PWC ranks the UK as the 16th easiest location to pay tax. More…