Contractors with key strategic skills are earning more than their permanent counterparts, as clients are “investing more resources”, including hiring, to obtain the talent they need to address capacity and skills shortages.
This is according to the latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) JobsOutlook for June 2015, which also highlights that 65% of contractor clients admit to paying their contingent workers more than they pay their employees.
“Candidate availability is extremely low and as a result more employers are offering lucrative short-term assignments, especially in fields such as engineering,” explains REC chief executive Kevin Green.
“Temporary work has historically been associated with the lower-skilled end of the jobs market, but we’re seeing the profile of agency workers change as more people choose to work in this way because of the pay and flexibility it offers.”
ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin believes this recognition by clients is long overdue: “Contingent workers in the core contracting disciplines have always delivered hard to source skills at premium rates. The JobsOutlook is simply confirming what those of us who have worked in the industry for decades have always known.”
The JobsOutlook confirms how the attitude towards those who contract has changed. Whereas contractors were once viewed as ‘temps’ brought in to cope with peak periods and to cover staff absence, eight out of ten employers now hire contractors for ‘short-term access to key strategic skills’.
The REC study also shows the extent of the skills shortage and the drive to recruit. Almost all employers surveyed (97%) reported having ‘no’ or ‘little’ capacity to take on more work without an increase in staff.
For contractors, this will result in a corresponding spike in contracting positions, as 97% of contractor clients aim to increase or maintain the current number of contract workers in the next three months, with an equivalent number planning to increase or maintain levels over the next four to 12 months.