State of the Market

[GhostofTarbera]

What's the privacy policy on that? I bet it's a data harvesting scam.

Agree it’s a bit US bias

I used the paid version, it does give a load of tips, seems legit, not been spammed, conned or sold into slavery thus far

It helped getting my current role (after a nice Dutch last sorted me out a super format for peanuts)


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

[elsergiovolador]

Web apps with such misaligned logos should be illegal.

[DrGUID]

Market is dead..

usually when I put my CV on CW jobs get 10 phone calls a day, had one in 1 month

Yeah I got 19 phonecalls in August 2015 when I uploaded my CV.

I had one phonecall last week about a .NET gig but it's another one in a location that's difficult to get to if you don't drive.

This is now the longest I've been out of work since the big crash of 2001-02. Thankfully I did get a settlement from a company that agreed to hire me in March then backtracked and I have something non-coding related for September.

If anyone's warchest is getting low then start looking for other things ASAP because the word on the street is that even minimum wage jobs are hard to come by in some parts of the country.

[CheeseSlice]

Some sort of good news:

My LinkedIn weekly profile views for the last 3 months has a clear upwards trend. Mainly recruiters finding me in searches.

Would be interesting to hear if others are seeing this trend.

I also saw the latest REC report on jobs which indicates a reversal of the freefall in demand for perm and contract jobs in June. I'll dig out the link and add here. It doesn't show a boom but it does indicate the bottom has been reached and we're on the path to growth.

[CheeseSlice]

I also saw the latest REC report on jobs which indicates a reversal of the freefall in demand for perm and contract jobs in June. I'll dig out the link and add here. It doesn't show a boom but it does indicate the bottom has been reached and we're on the path to growth.

The graph indicates the change of demand. Under 50 still indicates a fall in demand but it clearly reversed direction last month in a V shape.

More here..

KPMG and REC, UK report on jobs - KPMG United Kingdom

Note these reports cover all of market, all sectors, no specific skill, etc.

[BlackCountryContractor]

Hit the bench 3 weeks ago, still quiet but at least there has been some activity starting up with phone calls etc, jobs in my field of IT are hardly around but I guess it is the same for many contractors at the moment. Take care folks and hopefully we'll find some contracts eventually

[SussexSeagull]

From a testing perspective there seems to be a higher than normal percentage of SC roles, which suggests either public sector or outsourced.

Needs the private sector to spring into life before we can work towards a revival and that doesn't seem imminent.

Similar happened after the crash in 08.

[northernladuk]

From a testing perspective there seems to be a higher than normal percentage of SC roles, which suggests either public sector or outsourced.

Needs the private sector to spring into life before we can work towards a revival and that doesn't seem imminent.

Similar happened after the crash in 08.

Surely you can tell which they are by looking at the advert? You spotted they were SC, why not the client?

[SussexSeagull]

Surely you can tell which they are by looking at the advert? You spotted they were SC, why not the client?

Certainly was a few in Telford and Southend, which are most probably HMRC.

[LondonManc]

What is the point of moving back to contracting after April2021?

Inside IR35, likely via an umbrella, potential for pre-tax pension contributions to be removed soon, with limited viable travel (financially) to dip your toe into projects in other geographic areas. What's the point?

Brexit is very likely to lead to a lot of permanent roles only being budgeted for the short-term to fill gaps. Low day rates thrown into this mix means it's pointless staying in England longer term if you value a varied career in consulting or contracting. You can sell your soul to a permanent consultancy, but with job losses soon and lots of uncertainty they will also be offering poor salaries and development when compared to a basic permanent job with less seniority.

Never talk about pre-tax income, only concentrate on post-tax. If more people did this they wouldn't hesitate in choosing a local job with 40 hours a week at £75k annual salary versus 75 hours a week job with lots of travel at £95k annual salary. The post-tax difference means the hourly difference in rate is so close that the latter is a pointless vanity exercise.

I'll tackle these two points separately.

In response to the first, I did say that there were significant criteria for this. It's a big "if" whether or not those would be met. That's not even taking into account other factors, such as decent permie promotion to take dev contracting off the table as financially pointless. I'm currently a lead/principal dev so next step up is management; get that and there's no point looking at contracting.

In response to the second, that is, with respect, generalist horsepoop. Every contract that you consider applying for is done on its merits. You would be accused of living in a fantasy world of having two offers on the table to choose from! If there's only one on offer and nothing has turned up that wouldn't stop you taking it, you'd take it, depending on your warchest. If my normal rate inside (these are just examples) is £400 in the north west, but I was offered £500 inside in London, I'd negotiate on the amount of time I had to spend in London. Part weeks, alternate weeks, etc. Often if a firm want you and accept they cannot move on rate, they'll move on other things. If I can get alternate weeks, for example, then I've got what's left after tax on £1000 per week to get down and back. Even if you drive without a mileage claim, that's only about £30 in diesel return. You could even buy a cheap Ford Focus, use it for the contract then flog it so you're not racking up miles/wear and tear on your own car. Another £30 to park the car on the outskirts for the week, tube in, then cheap digs for four nights. A fair bit of hassle, but it's easy enough to make it still work and be better financially than you'd expect. It also beats being on the bench.