State of the Market

[PerfectStorm]

Boomed through to next spring - nice to take it all the way past Christmas and to the next tax year

[Fraidycat]

Boomed through to next spring - nice to take it all the way past Christmas and to the next tax year

Did you manage to get a rate bump as well?

[ContractorHardman]

Got a FTC with the same take home pay as before meaning I wont lose out. Current client doesn't want me to leave and the other wants me to join them so I have agreed to work for both. Accountant is working it all out behind the scenes.

I feel greedy with two roles!

[PerfectStorm]

Did you manage to get a rate bump as well?

Afraid not - with 100% WFH continuing to be baked into the deal and no real job seeking going on on my part, I didn't feel I had much leverage in that area.

[edison]

Anyone else think the market is starting to heat up again

Best I have seen it for a long tine at the minute for dev roles (when comparing offers, phone calls, interview requests etc to previous times)

Yep. I'm seeing it from both sides now. I've been hiring for several contractor roles (mostly non-dev) and over the last two weeks have had several drop out after the interview was confirmed. Several preferred candidates had also been already snapped up during the time that CVs were being reviewed (around two days.)

Candidate rates also have gone up a bit, maybe 10%.

I've told the senior management team and hiring managers at my client that they need to be quick on reviewing CVs and being available for interview as we're missing out on too many candidates now.

[creativity]

I went permanent last year to ride all this out, the salary wasn't too bad, but they knew my work already so much less risk for them. I have kept a couple of companies on through my Ltd - they buy a niche product from me and require my support from time to time. Having a permanent job and keeping limited company as second income via purchase orders is working out well.
Income is down, no doubt about it, but work life balance has improved. Reducing outgoings is as good as a rate rise too...
I have noticed an increase in people just like me; going permanent but keeping on trusted clients for PO work. Best of both worlds? Problem here is organic growth depletes over time, contracting gives you the breadth to meet new clients, being permanent means you rely on your history, and contacts move on...
What the market needs is a broker/agency who sits in the middle who understands what you do and can direct PO work to you. Small easily manageable work bites distributed via a trusted network, all completely outside IR35 by its very nature (Purchase Orders).

[Zzap]

It seemed to be picking up nicely and then the 4 week lockdown extension killed the market for me (I'm an experienced dev contractor). Here's hoping things get moving again after the 19th.

[lecyclist]

Heard from my client (Energy sector, London) last week that everyone is expected to wfh for another 6 months. I expect this to be the norm for many clients dependent on hot-desking/ or with capacity limitations. My client has an "available desk: number of staff/ contractors" ratio of 3:5.

[Robinho]

Never seen it this bad myself, although that could just be because i'm crap now

[Lance]

Heard from my client (Energy sector, London) last week that everyone is expected to wfh for another 6 months. I expect this to be the norm for many clients dependent on hot-desking/ or with capacity limitations. My client has an "available desk: number of staff/ contractors" ratio of 3:5.

one of my clients has said that no change to home working policies till at least September.