State of the Market

[madbloke]

Rumour has it 500 contractors have been shown the door in Edinburgh - that isn't going help with Williams and Glyn having already cleared out a lot

Where? RBS?

[SussexSeagull]

1. There is a glut of IT contractors in the UK. This pushes down wages so all roles are paying significantly less than 10 years ago.
2. Offshoring has sent 25,000+ IT jobs away from the UK. These are gone maybe forever.
3. Large global IT consultancy firms are filling vast numbers of UK places with foreign workers. The simple reason they do this is profit. If they hire a UK resource they are losing money.

Fifteen years ago I remember having 3 interviews and 3 job offers in 1 week, having been looking for a job for 1 week. This was with little effort job hunting. Now I have trouble getting 1 interview in 2 months.

Any contractors who are in jobs and acting smug because they believe they are fantastic will have a very hard fall when they exit their current roles. I also know several friends and ex-colleagues of mine are job hunting and finding it hard, more so than any time in my working career.

Not sure anyone is being smug (or at least most people shouldn't be) but I know what you mean. The only way forward now seems to be working friends and contacts but if the contracts aren't there then they aren't there.

[MrMarkyMark]

Not sure anyone is being smug (or at least most people shouldn't be) but I know what you mean. The only way forward now seems to be working friends and contacts but if the contracts aren't there then they aren't there.

+1 I usually get my roles through my network.

The Mrs, on the other hand, has been battling / persevering on the "open" contract market for quite a while and just yesterday landed something.
Small boutique consultancy, very clear what they wanted, prepared to pay for it with expenses on top.

We then both suggested that Rocking Horse tulip, is a more usual find in these times.

[itjobs]

I also have to wonder how many firms waited 28 days like they are supposed to before recruiting outside UK................. !!

There is no need for firms to wait. There are plenty here already on Tier-1 Visa (this route is closed as of 6th April 2015) who are happy to work for less than 50% of rate we (or at least I) may need. In particular, we need just enough to pay for Mortgage, Travelling, Insurance, Electric, Water, Car and other family expenses. Whereas for them it is not required. After all, their family is in their native country, they live here in shared accommodation, don't own a car, no insurance which cost less per head.

Besides, they are happy to work at a much lower salary through these consultancies in permanent positions, to extend their visa status so that they become eligible to apply for indefinite leave to remain or citizenship.

The only way to stay alive is to maintain our unique combination of skills and improve on it. And do only handover's rather than training and teaching

[ShandyDrinker]

1. There is a glut of IT contractors in the UK. This pushes down wages so all roles are paying significantly less than 10 years ago.
2. Offshoring has sent 25,000+ IT jobs away from the UK. These are gone maybe forever.
3. Large global IT consultancy firms are filling vast numbers of UK places with foreign workers. The simple reason they do this is profit. If they hire a UK resource they are losing money.

Fifteen years ago I remember having 3 interviews and 3 job offers in 1 week, having been looking for a job for 1 week. This was with little effort job hunting. Now I have trouble getting 1 interview in 2 months.

Any contractors who are in jobs and acting smug because they believe they are fantastic will have a very hard fall when they exit their current roles. I also know several friends and ex-colleagues of mine are job hunting and finding it hard, more so than any time in my working career.

Couldn't agree with this more. Certainly 15 years ago it was difficult to not get a job. Interview success rate has to be better now as the gap between interviews grows unless you are one of those lucky enough to ace every interview you attend.

Anyone entering the open contract market will be shocked when they find how little work there is out there.

I was recently contacted by an agent about a role who said that for a particular IB role he advertised the week before, he had well in excess of 750 CVs sent in for the role - if there is any truth in that number it shows how difficult things are out there right now.

While I agree with some on here that an option is to move up the value chain, that in itself may not be a viable option if the roles are being hoovered up consultancies and pimped out at lower rates either to those in the UK prepared to work for those rates or the workers brought in to do so.

Philip Hammond has said a number of times over the last month or so that post Brexit immigration should be limited to non-skilled workers but highly skilled workers should be exempt. Longer term I think this will be catastrophic for IT contractors. STEM crisis in the UK - don't make me laugh.

[itjobs]

...
I was recently contacted by an agent about a role who said that for a particular IB role he advertised the week before, he had well in excess of 750 CVs sent in for the role - if there is any truth in that number it shows how difficult things are out there right now.
...

This could be true. Forget about 750, even 75 is a huge number for one role. These days, when I can afford to, I kind of keep watching how many times the role appears. When it appears for the second or third time I know its time to make my grand entry :-)

Here is a consolation though. These days clients expect more relevant skills than just one specific skill. But I have noticed that many of non-UK candidates do not possess that (and soft skills) combination. Therefore rather than having just one skill in-depth, it appears to be useful to have multitude of skills at a higher level (that we can go deep when the need arises).

[itjobs]

Rumour has it 500 contractors have been shown the door in Edinburgh - that isn't going help with Williams and Glyn having already cleared out a lot

Wait till end of November/December. Many clients in Finance sector have not uttered a word about renewal. By January the markets are going to flooded with contractors of all sorts and very few openings.

[kaiser78]

Wait till end of November/December. Many clients in Finance sector have not uttered a word about renewal. By January the markets are going to flooded with contractors of all sorts and very few openings.

Time to go permie ?? Surely not

[oliverson]

******* depressing isn't it? I'm up in two weeks and whilst last week was pretty good from an opportunities perspective, I'm aware that I only have a few weeks to nail something before the Xmas/New Year lock-down.

[uk contractor]

1. There is a glut of IT contractors in the UK. This pushes down wages so all roles are paying significantly less than 10 years ago.
2. Offshoring has sent 25,000+ IT jobs away from the UK. These are gone maybe forever.
3. Large global IT consultancy firms are filling vast numbers of UK places with foreign workers. The simple reason they do this is profit. If they hire a UK resource they are losing money.

Fifteen years ago I remember having 3 interviews and 3 job offers in 1 week, having been looking for a job for 1 week. This was with little effort job hunting. Now I have trouble getting 1 interview in 2 months.

Any contractors who are in jobs and acting smug because they believe they are fantastic will have a very hard fall when they exit their current roles. I also know several friends and ex-colleagues of mine are job hunting and finding it hard, more so than any time in my working career.

Good post I agree with everything you said this has been going on for years as well. I would say since 2010 IME but before then it started around 2008 when costs became everything its been a slow burn eversince.