State of the Market

[Hobosapien]

...overall there are just way too many contractors chasing fewer roles...

I wonder how much of this is visible to those that say there are skills shortages and need to bring in more people from abroad via inter company transfers/visas?

Even if it was worth signing on the dole each week (depending on how you operate you may be classable as unemployed without too much aggro) not sure how visible the numbers would be even if there were 10s of thousands looking for work (contract or perm).

Do they record the sector (IT) when signing on? May need something more high profile. A CUK march through London.

[uk contractor]

I wonder how much of this is visible to those that say there are skills shortages and need to bring in more people from abroad via inter company transfers/visas?

Even if it was worth signing on the dole each week (depending on how you operate you may be classable as unemployed without too much aggro) not sure how visible the numbers would be even if there were 10s of thousands looking for work (contract or perm).

Do they record the sector (IT) when signing on? May need something more high profile. A CUK march through London.

Well very little most likely otherwise Whitehall would panic at how much wealth is leaving the country this way!! The companies who love bringing in inter company transfers/visa workers seem to be connected to those in government usually which as we would both agree is a massive conflict of interest! There simply have been very few genuine IT skills shortages for many years now so if they government were on the ball they would cancel all these bogus visas immediately to generate some work for the growing army of IT unemployed!!

Its good to claim JSA as your fully entitled to & it proves to employers who need it what you have done for that bench time but after 12 weeks DWP want to boot you onto an unpaid workfare scheme & if you refuse they can sanction you for 6 weeks then 3 months then 6 months up to a maximum of 3 years I believe....all because you object to being asked to work for free on usually a @ Reed Employment placement where they are clearly charging the client a lot of money & paying you nothing!

[uncle_albert]

Many applying for 1 role

An agent who I know pretty well was saying that he's getting c400 applications for every role he puts on jobserve.

[CoolCat]

I wonder how much of this is visible to those that say there are skills shortages and need to bring in more people from abroad via inter company transfers/visas?

Even if it was worth signing on the dole each week (depending on how you operate you may be classable as unemployed without too much aggro) not sure how visible the numbers would be even if there were 10s of thousands looking for work (contract or perm).

Do they record the sector (IT) when signing on? May need something more high profile. A CUK march through London.

Re "I wonder how much of this is visible to those that say there are skills shortages" make it known. Post on "Conservative Home" website, post on MP's blogs, write to your MP, Write to Iain Duncan Smith and others that advocate keeping intra company visa taps open, etc

[ShandyDrinker]

An agent who I know pretty well was saying that he's getting c400 applications for every role he puts on jobserve.

I posted something about something similar for a role I was contacted about last week. Granted, in my case it was for a city based role.

For me the big question is whether it is like that in the rest of the country? For example, where I live in the South West I suspect there must be a large number of applicants per role simply because over the last few years the rates in the South West have been diabolical!

[LondonManc]

Re "I wonder how much of this is visible to those that say there are skills shortages" make it known. Post on "Conservative Home" website, post on MP's blogs, write to your MP, Write to Iain Duncan Smith and others that advocate keeping intra company visa taps open, etc

Indeed and while doing so, mention that every IT contract outsourced means that they're missing out on £20k pa in VAT, plus the knock ons of reduced spending, increased JSA claims, etc. Company share prices won't feed the masses and we'll eventually reach breaking point as the rise of UKIP and the vote for Brexit have shown.

[oliverson]

Indeed and while doing so, mention that every IT contract outsourced means that they're missing out on £20k pa in VAT, plus the knock ons of reduced spending, increased JSA claims, etc. Company share prices won't feed the masses and we'll eventually reach breaking point as the rise of UKIP and the vote for Brexit have shown.

It's an idiot mentality isn't it. Forcing contractors who probably generated £ 40-50k of income for the revenue and then contribute considerably to the economy (by buying lots of stuff we don't need, but that's beside the point) to become in effect permies generating a fraction of that, or worse, becoming dole-dossers, or worse leaving the country and generating income elsewhere.

They should be rewarding us not penalising us.

[CoolCat]

It's an idiot mentality isn't it. Forcing contractors who probably generated £ 40-50k of income for the revenue and then contribute considerably to the economy (by buying lots of stuff we don't need, but that's beside the point) to become in effect permies generating a fraction of that, or worse, becoming dole-dossers, or worse leaving the country and generating income elsewhere.

They should be rewarding us not penalising us.

Its not just contractors being displaced from the market or having their rates driven down, its also permies being displaced from the jobs market and having their wages driven down. Lots I know took early retirement simply cos they couldn't get a job, not through choice. Lots not claiming as they have too much capital. And so on, so jobless figures don't show the full picture.

[SussexSeagull]

Genuinely wish you good luck with that but its not much different in permy land so many jobs are either not being advertised when people leave, outsourced to the lowest bidder or just outsourced offshore it seems like we are in a race to the bottom now with few exceptions the IT market is so overloaded with candidates right now!

Thanks. I have had a few phone calls about permanent jobs (no idea why because up to now I haven't been looking for a permanent job and they were in another part of the country) but we shall see.

[IL Cattivo]

For the last 16 years, up until the end of June of this year, I was an IT permie who fell victim to the big corp offshore outsourcing cost cutting exercise. The corp was supposedly an 'investor in people' Unfortunately its the way of the world with these types of organizations. They used to be 75% Permie - 25% contractor. Now they're something like 50% offshore outsource, 45% local permie & 5% contractor (if that)

Since then I've been open to both contract and permie jobs. Been finding most recruitment consultants to actually get in the way of bagging contract roles, as thus far I've only had success attaining contracts without using them and liaising with clients directly.

Permie job salaries are as appealing these days as a cardiac arrest..!!