State of the Market

[agentzero]

I'm in contract and have been for some years now. My profession is popular. I've stopped receiving the Linked In sales messages from agents for roles and receiving fewer emails.

The following is an observation and not a judgement on anybody posting here: Life in the world of permies doesn't seem rosy either. With inflation high, people losing their minds and overpaying for most things, a recession does seem more and more likely. To me a primary indicator of carelessness is ebay prices for discretionary spending and silly house prices indicating incompetence. Across the country I know people spending well above the survey value of houses and even flats. There was a time when basic consumer ebay items would sell for about their spanking new fully packaged and warrantied RRP on other websites.

People ebaying like crazy has calmed down, but house prices haven't calmed down enough yet. Contracts are down, but permies haven't all had good pay rises and I think that there will be a significant correction in carelessness, with the resultant effect on house prices.

What does this mean for real contractors? If you're PAYE or equivalent, go permie, otherwise you're facing the US style of treating PAYE contractors like dirt. For outside better paid contractors it's probably time to be happy you didn't spend all that cash in the investments and savings accounts and buckle down for a year or two. If you are struggling, consider taking two contracts at the same time, with at least one of those not necessarily in your realms of expertise. 2 x £300 outside contracts that you have to think on your feet is better than zero contracts and zero calls. Swings and roundabouts. Same in the 2000s, 2008, 2003, 2020, same again now.

[agentzero]

Not all managers want to be perms. There's a fairly big but specialised market for interim managers. Typically these are very experienced people in their 40s and older. I've done multiple interim roles like Head of IT Strategy and Head of IT for around 12-15 months.

Sorry, I didn't mean that people were not ideal to do such roles, I should have prefixed it: end clients are grouping roles Inside and Outside IR35 and the inside buckets seem to place people-managers into the Inside bucket. Managers, Project Manager, Programme Managers and the rest, rightly or wrongly. The bigger the organisation the worse and immovable this blanketing is.

[eek]

The following is an observation and not a judgement on anybody posting here: Life in the world of permies doesn't seem rosy either. With inflation high, people losing their minds and overpaying for most things, a recession does seem more and more likely. To me a primary indicator of carelessness is ebay prices for discretionary spending and silly house prices indicating incompetence. Across the country I know people spending well above the survey value of houses and even flats.

That makes zero sense from someone who understands the market. House prices are high compared to salary multiples but the issue for a lot of people is that buying is still cheaper than renting and with over 1 million people added to the UK population last year the supply of housing is still way less than demand.

[eek]

If you are struggling, consider taking two contracts at the same time, with at least one of those not necessarily in your realms of expertise. 2 x £300 outside contracts that you have to think on your feet is better than zero contracts and zero calls. Swings and roundabouts. Same in the 2000s, 2008, 2003, 2020, same again now.

Also this is complete bulltulip - htf do you keep 2 contracts going without working all hours of the day (and don't say careful planning, low paid contracts are usually harder work than properly paid ones).

[SussexSeagull]

Also this is complete bulltulip - htf do you keep 2 contracts going without working all hours of the day (and don't say careful planning, low paid contracts are usually harder work than properly paid ones).

This. Plus if people are struggling to find one contract then it is going to be twice as difficult to find two. Also more clients want to see you in the office some of the time. This would involve going dark on the other contract for a working day.

[TheGreenBastard]

2 contracts is amateur hour, doesn't count unless it's at least 3 clients on the go!

Multi-gigging really pays dividends in this economic climate.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

This. Plus if people are struggling to find one contract then it is going to be twice as difficult to find two. Also more clients want to see you in the office some of the time. This would involve going dark on the other contract for a working day.

In some circumstances this can work... you need to be prepared to work 10-12 hours a day and with both roles being remote. I've seen somebody successfully do this for about 3-4 months. Past that point burn out is likely to happen.

[Smoggy]

It's quiet out there in actuarial too. I did manage to get an interview last week but they're goin with someone they managed to get in on a FTC instead.

Thankfully I've managed to pick up 4 weeks with a former client at a good (inside) rate which will bolster the warchest a bit to see me through the school holidays. Hopefully things pick up a bit by then.

[agentzero]

Also this is complete bulltulip - htf do you keep 2 contracts going without working all hours of the day (and don't say careful planning, low paid contracts are usually harder work than properly paid ones).

In the dot com crash I was an Architect. I took on 2 much lower paid contracts during a bad period. No contract needs a solid 8 or 9 hours of my time, so it's just a case of saying no to certain tasks and learn to manage time better. It's not for everybody, but if you know when to say no and don't let a company abuse you like a donkey, it can work well. It's only for making ends meet in a contracting sense and not something I would recommend if you're at a senior level, as you'll get found out quickly. Lower paid roles are easier to do. If all I could get was 2 x £250pd outside IR35 roles and they looked easy I'd do that in a heartbeat over zero work for months. Thankfully I haven't had to do it since, but I know people who concurrently do 2 or 3 contracts and are raking in a fortune. They are very intelligent and impressively organised. I value my life and take one higher rate role at a time these days.

[SussexSeagull]

In some circumstances this can work... you need to be prepared to work 10-12 hours a day and with both roles being remote. I've seen somebody successfully do this for about 3-4 months. Past that point burn out is likely to happen.

I have certainly had entirely home based contracts I could have done another contract during but if your client wants you in the office at all or meetings clash it would slightly fall apart. Unless you are genuinely paid on delivery, then in which case crack on.