Contractors in IT, telecoms, computing, engineering and related technical disciplines are forecast to be in short supply throughout 2013. This is a welcome start to the new year for contractors, many of whom can look forward to a strong contract market and potentially rising rates.
According to the latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s (REC) JobsOutlook for November 2012, skills shortages in these sectors will arise, partly because “confidence seems to be growing fastest in the industrial sector of the economy”. A similar shortage of IT professionals and engineers is anticipated for permanent staffing.
“These are encouraging signs for jobs growth in 2013,” comments REC’s chief executive Kevin Green. “Based on the feedback from both employers and recruiters, it looks like employer confidence is genuinely bouncing back.
“Even though the wider economic outlook may still be uncertain and growth forecasts have been revised downwards, the resilience of this country’s labour market cannot be in doubt,” he adds.
Nearly a third of clients responding to the JobsOutlook confirmed that they forecast contractor headcounts increasing during 2013, with only 12% suggesting that their use of contractors is likely to decrease over the next 12 months.
Financial IT contractors received a welcome boost to their prospects, too: the survey shows permanent hiring in accounting and financial services increasing. As the second largest consumer of IT contractor services after software development, the fortunes of the UK’s financial sector directly correlate with IT contractor demand.
The ‘temp to perm’ trend of contractors choosing to join their clients’ permanent workforce, which has been broadly trending upwards since July 2012, fell during November. REC speculates that this may be because the supply of contractors willing to become employees has dried up. It believes that the alternative, that employers are losing confidence in making permanent hires, does not fit with the evidence.
Green concludes: “The flexibility within our labour market means that we have not been hit with the same difficulties as our European neighbours, and we believe that job growth is set to continue [throughout] the new year.”