Anyone else suffering from a holiday lull?

[nomadd]

And where do you suppose this flood of rookie contractors is coming from?

East of Dover.

[SueEllen]

And where do you suppose this flood of rookie contractors is coming from?

There are lots of first timers around as well as foreigners.

[northernladuk]

There are lots of first timers around as well as foreigners.

Indeed. We are trying to fill spot and all we are getting is permies want to contract. 3 of em, not one with more than 5 years under their belt. My bin is starting to overflow. Who the hell takes these people on???

[SueEllen]

Indeed. We are trying to fill spot and all we are getting is permies want to contract. 3 of em, not one with more than 5 years under their belt. My bin is starting to overflow. Who the hell takes these people on???

I've interviewed permies for contract roles with more experience but they are still shocked when you tell them the role involves being flexible on some occasions.

Even as a permie I had to be flexible so I'm puzzled what employers these people have had.

[silverlight1]

I spoke to a Director at one of the large London recruitment co's and she said that during the recession no one could hire permies hence they stuffed their departments full of contractors to hide the bodies.

Now they can hire permies again the contract market has taken a dip, compounded by over-supply of newbies and ex-outsourcers willing to work for £200 per day

However, things will pick up again since they won't be able to hire permies with the same skills and ethos as a contractor and I've recently seen quite a few roles advertised as contract where they eventually got frustrated and changed the position from perm to contract to get it filled

[WobbleWobble]

It's definitely slow at the moment, consultancies are picking up a lot of the work.

[uk contractor]

Another slow week goes by starting to think its early 2000s all over again for various reasons (outsourcing, import workers, scared to hire clients, perm instead of contract hiring mindset & or all of the above!).

[suityou01]

Bit of a flourish to the end of the week. Things picking up?

I'm now in for 5 roles, one of them has converted to interview on Monday. Long odds mind, lots and lots of horses in that race. But it's progress at least.

If you think about it, things are looking up for Suity, so for you normal peeps it should be just fine.

Truly HTH

[vadhert]

Quiet on the old western front.

Getting plenty of phone calls 95% of which dont seem to be signed off by clients.

Keep calm, skill up and carry on

[squarepeg]

Quiet on the old western front.

Getting plenty of phone calls 95% of which dont seem to be signed off by clients.

Keep calm, skill up and carry on

That may be b/c clients are playing the waiting game trying to force agents to force contractors to go perm. Had a lot of such calls over the last three weeks. Also three interviews for contract positions that turned to be attempts to lure me into perm with "generous benefits" (bike tax credits, and all that tulip) and "a great working environment" (yeah, right). When I said no, they turned me down because "I was overqualified".