State of the Market

[SussexSeagull]

I had it bad last year. Nothing for 5 months from the start of the year. I honestly thought I was done. Seems to have picked up now so this year looks a lot more promising. I honestly don't think at times theirs much you can do other than wait it out, if the roles are not available that match your skills your not going to get much. I hope things pick up for you and the others affected soon.

Doesn't help you I know but from what I'm seeing in my field anyway this year has started with lots of calls from agents so things are certainly happening behind the scenes.

I have certainly had a lot more chatter since the tale end of last year, although nothing got over the line.

[dsc]

They aren't a money earner when they have to pay people benefits and if immigration isn't reduced there is the Reform party waiting in the wings to tackle it with a sledgehammer.

Anyone who believes Reform will tackle immigration is delusional, just like Brexit hasn't done anything to migration, just swapped EU for Asia and even ramped up the numbers. In a country which runs on immigration and cheap labour saying that you will "tackle" immigration can't be more stupid.

[Fraidycat]

2 1/2 years. Someone posted the .Net Crash lasted 30mths. So we are past that point now. No ******* money, no ******* contract. FFS ....bad man.

I think you mean .dot com crash.

Yes it lasted about 30 months from peak to the absolute low where things were the badest in terms of job numbers. Then it started to improve after, taking another a year or so to back to something resembling normal..

I dont know if the low point for this current downturn is still ahead of us or behind us, or if we permanently stay low forever (i doubt it).

If its not a V shaped recovery and more of a U shaped recovery I think we stay in the doldrums (botton of the U) until

1) Layoffs completely stop
2) Interest rates start to come down a lot more


Cant see things improving until both those happen. Layoff are quite low now but still not back to pre downturn levels. Interest rates began to get cut last year but the cuts were put on hold.


Also the government need to stop saying that more tax rises might still happen. not helping confidence..

[quackhandle]

There are a few gigs out there that pique my interest but getting to speak to the pimp about them is nigh on impossible.

You see a gig on LI against their name, but when checking profile they haven't posted in weeks or even months.


qh

[dsc]

[...]

Also the government need to stop saying that more tax rises might still happen. not helping confidence..

Oh but it is, but on a different front, they need to assure the financial world that they will tackle the massive budget deficit, otherwise you'll soon have a repeat of the gilt % feck up we've seen recently. It's either tax rises or cuts, both of which can't really work in the current scenario but one has to happen.

[edison]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cg7zdme95z1t

Silicon valley between Oxford and Cambridge? Sounds like a new business park with a bus route. More houses between Oxford and London, ah yes, that will be for further immigration.

At least they know IT is suffering but like the rest of us, not sure what to do about it. Apart from of course to issue more visas

Whilst the chances of creating another Silicon Valley anyway in the world are pretty much nil, I think you're doing a great disservice to the Cambridge and Oxford region by describing it as a business park with a bus route.

Cambridge is already one of the top life sciences cities in Europe and the Cambridge/Oxford/London triangle is probably the biggest cluster in Europe.

Cambridge is the biggest startup ecosystem in the UK outside of London.

The East-West rail line is well underway that will connect Cambridge, Oxford, Milton Keynes and potentially out all the way to Cardiff. A second train station has been built in Cambridge and a third is on its way. Many new business parks including the huge biomedical campus have been built in the last decade or are planned to be built.

As southerner, I'm all for improving infrastructure outside the south east as everyone else gets a raw deal. But there's no getting away from the fact that Cambridge/Oxford/London is a huge engine area for growth in tech and life sciences.

The longer term challenge is to repeat this in the regions around Manchester/Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh which are currently the biggest concentrations of startups in the UK.

[SussexSeagull]

Anyone who believes Reform will tackle immigration is delusional, just like Brexit hasn't done anything to migration, just swapped EU for Asia and even ramped up the numbers. In a country which runs on immigration and cheap labour saying that you will "tackle" immigration can't be more stupid.

What I think is slightly academic. There is a perception with many that Reform will come in and either stop immigration entirely or bring it down to very low numbers and that is influencing the national conversation.

Plus, I think there is a consensus forming that we need to start training some of our own people rather than just importing them. Remains to be seen what this means in reality but I definitely think the mood music has changed amongst people who are fine with immigrants but are beginning to question the levels of immigration.

[SussexSeagull]

The longer term challenge is to repeat this in the regions around Manchester/Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Edinburgh which are currently the biggest concentrations of startups in the UK.

Which HS2 would probably have helped but I think that ship has sailed for a couple of decades (London to Birmingham aside).

[GJABS]

just like Brexit hasn't done anything to migration

It wasn't meant to. It was to allow us to control it.

[SussexSeagull]

It wasn't meant to. It was to allow us to control it.

I hear this a lot but I would be amazed if 5% of people who voted for Brexit because they wanted reduced immigration did it to swap one group of immigrants with another.