State of the Market

[edison]

My current mid-size client has recently taken on quite a lot of contractor PMs and BAs as well as a few techies to support a new £20m business transformation programme. Despite a recession, there will still be a good number of medium size organisations with legacy IT and low levels of digital maturity that are having to invest in tech and transformation.

Private equity is another area I anecdotally hear from contacts that is still doing well, given the weak value of the pound and attractive valuations of mid-market companies for M&A, divestment and carve out etc.

[OzzieExpat]

Market seems dead right now. I've seen this before many times. It will be first bench in the best part of 5 years.

[northernladuk]

Market seems dead right now. I've seen this before many times. It will be first bench in the best part of 5 years.

It's run up to Xmas innit

[SussexSeagull]

It's run up to Xmas innit

You might be joking but this is the second October in a row I have started looking and both times it has been dead from then onwards until new year.

[_V_]

You might be joking but this is the second October in a row I have started looking and both times it has been dead from then onwards until new year.

Will pick up again in 6 months time.

[northernladuk]

You might be joking but this is the second October in a row I have started looking and both times it has been dead from then onwards until new year.

Indeed. The only long bench time I've had was around now and landed a role 2nd week in Jan. That said, I'm not a believer the contracting market is massively affected by holiday season, year end etc as projects exist for cost saving or more profit. Delaying recruitment delays realising the benefits of the project. I guess you could argue profit protection periods and change freezes mean it's not worth getting some roles in around now but my retail client has two people leaving in the next few weeks and one already gone and they are full on recruiting so they aren't slowing down because of the current period.

[eek]

Indeed. The only long bench time I've had was around now and landed a role 2nd week in Jan. That said, I'm not a believer the contracting market is massively affected by holiday season, year end etc as projects exist for cost saving or more profit. Delaying recruitment delays realising the benefits of the project. I guess you could argue profit protection periods and change freezes mean it's not worth getting some roles in around now but my retail client has two people leaving in the next few weeks and one already gone and they are full on recruiting so they aren't slowing down because of the current period.

Yet today I was insisting some work was prioritised as we need it done by early January on it's unclear if and when this clientco is going to announce Xmas furloughs (which rumour has it may be for most of December).

[northernladuk]

Yet today I was insisting some work was prioritised as we need it done by early January on it's unclear if and when this clientco is going to announce Xmas furloughs (which rumour has it may be for most of December).

Yep, am sure some work will be put off due to furloughs and/or change freezes so will be situational on the work required but I don't think there is a general no recruiting due to xmas. Very dependant on the client and the particular piece of work.

[Paralytic]

Market seems dead right now. I've seen this before many times. It will be first bench in the best part of 5 years.

Your market might seem dead. There is no such thing as "a market" for IT where you can say its dead, or flourishing or anywhere in between.

[gables]

Yep, am sure some work will be put off due to furloughs and/or change freezes so will be situational on the work required but I don't think there is a general no recruiting due to xmas. Very dependant on the client and the particular piece of work.

To me xmas has always felt a bit of a wind down for actual recruitment as the agencies seemed to be more interested in schmoozing the clients, well certainly in the old days anyway. Having said that up until now my contracts have always spanned December\January so maybe I was lucky. This time though I'm experiencing recruitment efforts by agencies but all with start dates of January, but that might be because the clients I've been contacted about are in finance.