State of the Market

[siphr]

My hunt for the next contract continues. Agents sound gloomy about the state of the market "worst I've seen it in years" and "it's dead" and even the permie market has slowed.

I've also heard contractors are accepting lower rates as its a clients market. Dropping from 550 to 350 is a painful prospect.

Everything appears to be London based which is where I'm trying to avoid for quality of life reasons. I'm looking at everywhere outside London. Any industry.

Anyone here have a different experience recently? Particularly interested to hear from PM or BA as that's been hit hardest.

I guess it may vary based on the industry, but my experience and assessment is 100% the same. In fact I even met a couple of clients in London (but only if they were considering part remote), but in the end nothing fruitful. I am fairly new to contracting but I feel I started at the wrong time. Still hanging in there though, I've seen a pick-up of the market in April certainly, but north is very very quiet.

[zonkkk]

Interesting times in automotive - safety critical embedded software.

I have been approached by 2 agencies for 2 different clients (well known names) who are paying good rates and would be willing to wait 2 months for me to start.
Anybody else experienced this lately?

[Lance]

if it helps anyone. The market looks to be booming.

I have 2 contracts on the go, and a 3rd if only I can convince them I can't deliver till July.
another lined up for straight after that.

and everyone around me is seeing the same.

I've never seen it so busy. It's almost as if the B***** delay has released lots of budget.

[simes]

Nice to hear an upbeat take on the forum.

Congrats.

[uk contractor]

Some sectors are booming while others (financial services especially) are heading the other way!

[Bluenose]

Nice to hear an upbeat take on the forum.

Congrats.

It is April, lots of budgets get released, the question is how long will it last, my expectation is not very long.

[simes]

Aaaaand, we're back to downbeat.

[Bluenose]

It will take more than a couple of bods who have their phones ringing off the hook in April to break this bear market.

[NomadPanda]

if it helps anyone. The market looks to be booming.

I have 2 contracts on the go, and a 3rd if only I can convince them I can't deliver till July.
another lined up for straight after that.

and everyone around me is seeing the same.

I've never seen it so busy. It's almost as if the B***** delay has released lots of budget.

Interesting ... what industry and what type of role? Ie Banking/Insurance, PM / BA. VS automotive full stack dev/engineering niche? Very different.

[kryten22uk]

Some sectors are booming while others (financial services especially) are heading the other way!

I work in Insurance and very much a market upturn recently, at all levels of experience.