State of the Market

[JustKeepSwimming]

Spoke to agent yesterday. Over 300 applications for the role, shortlisted 5 strong candidates from the first 100 or so and had to bin the rest.

2/3rds aren't even in the race! And I assume there is another sift on the client side.

[SchumiStars]

Anyone need a skilled C# / Java developer?

Budget cuts means clientco have found a permi to replace me. I have also managed to spend the entire warchest renovating the house. I love my life, trouble is never too far away.

[SussexSeagull]

I've been contracting for almost 18 years now. In all that time I think I've only been out of contract for around a month.

I'm based pretty close to London, but I've mostly skilled up/done training to keep myself valid. Am I just extremely lucky? I can't imagine how stressful it would be being out of contract for months at a time (even though I've obviously built up a war chest).

This isn't a humble-brag, I just don't get how it's possible to be out of contract for that long? Are folks just fussy on day rate/skillset?

As I have said before until you have had to look for a contract in the current environment past results might not be an indicator of future success. Maybe you have got the skill set to stay off the bench but equally even the most niche skillset still needs a project to be funded.

[dsc]

I don't think that's really true. I got a SQL Server DBA role a few months ago even though I hadn't worked as a SQL DBA for four years. But I had 20 years experience with it. I hadn't forgotten anything important. (In the intervening 4 years I had worked with Spark SQL on Databricks as a developer, which has some things in common but is not really the same).

Well sure but there's clearly a difference between 20yrs exp in something, a break and then using that skill again vs. learning a skill and not using it at all.

[JustKeepSwimming]

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2...rnd=premium-uk

Jobs listed with Reed Recruitment are down 24.4% in the three months to June from a year earlier and are 26.6% lower than the same time in 2019, before the pandemic. That’s shaken the confidence of the company’s Chairman James Reed in the prospects for the UK.

IT & Telecoms vacancies down 40% compared to 2019.

[agentzero]

snip
Overall I feel like IR35 changes might've wrecked the market a bit, loads of people went perm / inside and those who are fine inside will most likely not go rocking the boat looking for something else. I'm just not sure where the extra people on the market are coming from, maybe fired from the likes of Meta / other large corps? Contractors were doing fine in a market with no perms looking for work, but it seems like now there's plenty perms to choose from, so even jumping from contracting to perm is uber hard.
snip

I for one am glad of the IR35 changes. I only work outside IR35 contracts and the level of talent I work with now is of more reliable higher standard than before the IR35 changes. In the past one or two contractors would need carried during a project. Now? No chance, only the professionals and far less chancers.

[Fraidycat]

IT & Telecoms vacancies down 40% compared to 2019.

That is a shocking stat but no surprise to anyone looking for an IT job at present..

And the UK isn't officially in a recession yet.. Things could get much worse, or maybe the opposite happens and when a real recession starts they layoff permies and hire contractors to replace them? Never been much of believer in that theory myself, but some on here have said that happens..

[avonleigh]

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2...rnd=premium-uk



IT & Telecoms vacancies down 40% compared to 2019.

Would say that figure is way off tbh. If you look at itjobswatch for active jobs against the historical average, I would say 75% down is more truthful.

[edison]

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2...rnd=premium-uk



IT & Telecoms vacancies down 40% compared to 2019.

Looking at that interactive Bloomberg map, there are some alarm bells ringing for me. Excluding London, there's a rough geographical corridor that goes from Swindon/Reading to Oxford, Milton Keynes, Cambridge and Peterborough which has long had especially tight labour markets. Most of these are showing marked declines in YOY vacancies.

[GigiBronz]

Are people still looking for work?

I've done occasional sprees of applications, applying to 100 of contracts at a time with very little success. The burner never rings.

So currently live in Seville, 1 bed apartment in city center is £950 per month airbnb, food is a lot cheaper than the UK. It is a bit hot but I like it.
I go out, get drunk and sleep 10+h, it is a bit purposeless but so would be a 90k role in London that would barely help me save anything... while getting constant abuse from pesky managers.

Other people that have been benched for more than 4-5 months, what are you up to?