State of the Market

[PerfectStorm]

I've not been looking, but I've noticed a drop-off in cold calls

[dsc]

Out of interest, which countries are any better?


Sent from my iPhone using Contractor UK Forum

Ireland seems to have a fairly lively "contract" market (via umbrellas, so no the same as here in the UK, tax is much higher). Loads of European countries are doing ok-ish, but pretty much everywhere you need to know the local language, English alone isn't enough, so I reckon that's a no-go for a lot (especially native English speakers, although if they are desperate and you are special they will accept just English). Also travel restrictions aren't helping. I'm from Poland where the IT market is booming massively and salaries are pretty sky high considering living costs (it's getting expensive very quickly), so you can always go there and do some revenge job stealing.

[dsc]

The problem with the report is that it is so high level, covering all of UK and all sectors, that trying to apply it to IT contracting or perm jobs is quite difficult.
e.g. Some parts of the country are still declining, whilst others are rising. And temp work was up everywhere, except in London.

YMMV

Read somewhere recently that the building industry is pushing the numbers up and that "white collar" market is dead for now without much hope for now at least.

Also, even with new jobs being advertised, I reckon most are well below pre-Covid market rates, so growth might actually mean very little :/

[jamesbrown]

revenge job stealing.

[SussexSeagull]

I think if you have been waiting without gigs for months now, your career is done in contracting. There is going to be no chance to get any role going forward, and I have come to that realisation a while back + plus the fact that you won't be able to compete with other contractors who are currently on any gig who are also continuing to apply for roles, no matter how wonderful profile you have or gigs you have done until Covid hit.

I think that is nonsense. The problem at the moment is there isn't enough contracts to go round and I don't see any benefit to agents going after someone in contract who might need persuading, a higher rate than someone on the bench and quite possibly has a notice period.

[uk contractor]

The latest REC report on jobs was released today for the last couple of weeks in August. From what I could understand from it, the UK jobs market finally returned to growth, particulary temp work, though its still very bleak compared with normal market conditions.
It must have literally come out of the trough in those final weeks last month as the overall picture for demand in August was still down compared to the months before.

Linky

The problem with the report is that it is so high level, covering all of UK and all sectors, that trying to apply it to IT contracting or perm jobs is quite difficult.
e.g. Some parts of the country are still declining, whilst others are rising. And temp work was up everywhere, except in London.

YMMV

That report is as good as used toilet paper though no crediblity whatsoever from it! Just another survey taken from british businesses. Clearly jobs across all sectors have been hit very hard & will continue to struggle for some time to come as commercial activity globally is suffering from the pandemic.

Furlough ending next month will throw a lot more people in the UK onto the jobs scrapheap as well sadly because a lot of companies ONLY survived by receiving furlough for their staff.

The jobs simply do not exist in great numbers anymore its supply & demand all over & supply is at an alltime high & demand close to the bottom of the graph so do the math yourself & work out what that means going forward well into 2021!

There will probably be a new industrial revolution with AI & robotics replacing many workers & that is the most likely outcome when the dust settles.

[edison]

The latest REC report on jobs was released today for the last couple of weeks in August. From what I could understand from it, the UK jobs market finally returned to growth, particulary temp work, though its still very bleak compared with normal market conditions.
It must have literally come out of the trough in those final weeks last month as the overall picture for demand in August was still down compared to the months before.

Linky

The problem with the report is that it is so high level, covering all of UK and all sectors, that trying to apply it to IT contracting or perm jobs is quite difficult.
e.g. Some parts of the country are still declining, whilst others are rising. And temp work was up everywhere, except in London.

YMMV

Here are some links to more positive sounding news specifically on the tech job market based on a survey by Tech Nation. Advertised tech vacancies up 36% since June although that is still well down on Q1 2020.

https://www.itpro.co.uk/business-str...h-the-pandemic

UK Tech Jobs: Vacancies Booming, Says Tech Nation. Here's What's Hot

[sira]

I've had quite a few interviews this week and last week with large companies. All of these gigs were marketed to me as "urgent" but during these interviews & the general recruitment process, there is no sense of urgency at all from companies. They simply don't give a toss.

For example, one company I'm interviewing with had two perm headcount pre-covid (for 2 different roles) but they got changed into contract gigs due to the pandemic - they said these headcount have been open since January and need to be filled urgently. I interviewed well for both roles and got through to 2nd round, and still no slots provided for either. I felt like they're not sure if they want to hire anyone at all and it wouldn't surprise me if both roles get dropped as Covid wave 2 and Brexit is starting to bite.

Slightly more bizarrely, two others were maternity cover, (12 month gigs) so they need someone in ASAP to do a handover etc., again made it through to next rounds and still no news (after 1-2 weeks. I was told only 3 candidates including myself were being interviewed, yet no noise. Maybe they told me I got through, but secretly I didn't get through

Tldr; there was a small ray of hope as of last week but the market's turned to tulip again and likely wont improve as we near winter.

[quackhandle]

Phoned up about a gig yesterday morning, role had only been live 1 hour, pimp said "we've already got 60 CVs already, can't guarantee yours will be looked at."

Gotta get in quick!

Also, have noticed that some of the bigger pimps (Hays/Experis, etc) are only doing FTC roles or Inside only.

qh

[PCTNN]

A few days ago in the afternoon I applied for a role (permie). 30 minutes later the agent left a voicemail AND sent me an email saying my profile was perfect for the role and to either call him back or let him know when he can call me back.

I replied the next morning with my available times for a call. Haven't heard back since, complete radio silence.

You can tell it's a buyer's market because in those couple of hours from when the agent called me and the end of the business day he must have already found enough candidates to put forward.