State of the Market

[avonleigh]

Very hard to gauge whether contractor rates are down now because of IR35, as northernlad said. Permie salaries don't seem to be dropping though from what I can tell.
On house prices, can't see there being any crash. 5-10% drop next year and then flat until 2026-2027 would be my bet.

[PCTNN]

Permie salaries are all over the place for my skillset and level (Senior/Lead UX and UI Designer).

The lowest of all are salaries in the public sector. 45k a year. No wonder they can't find anyone and have to rely on contractors.

Banking still pays better than most but the differences are huge. I've been approached for a Senior role at Nationwide paying 60k (100% remote), another Senior role at NatWest paying 75-80k, and also another Senior role at LBG paying 92k (but London based). Those are pretty big differences for doing basically the same job.

Contractor rates, on the other hand, haven't changed in years and are consistent for all industries. 500-600 a day from public sector to banking. No differences there

[northernladuk]

Contractor rates, on the other hand, haven't changed in years and are consistent for all industries. 500-600 a day from public sector to banking. No differences there

You are forgetting the fact that 90% of these roles are now inside so around a 35% cut vs outside so there are massive differences.

Comparing the few outside roles like for like with the old days maybe but that's not an accurate reflection on the situation

[BlueSharp]

Something has shook the market this week, getting plenty of linked-in spam from agents after months of radio silence.

[eek]

Something has shook the market this week, getting plenty of linked-in spam from agents after months of radio silence.

It's the opposite in my world (although I've personally had 2 offers this week) there are usually 100-150 ads on Jobserve, currently it's 50 and only 1 posted so far today.

[sreed]

Starting a new contract next Tuesday after my ongoing PS contract was nixed abruptly due to the department being asked to slash budgets and freeze hiring. My observations (mid-senior PM roles) from the last 2 weeks of hunting for a new contract in any sector -

- saw very few outside PM contracts.

- PS recruitment seems extremely unpredictable at the moment, at least as a PM. After my current PS contract was nixed, I quickly landed another PS contract through PSR, that was pulled a couple of days before I was supposed to start. Lots of roles advertised over the past weeks just disappeared.

- I had an NHS PM role that I landed at 550pd only for the agency to come back and sheepishly say that the NHS client changed the grade for the role which means that the day rate is now closer to 300 not 550! As far as I could tell it was the same bloody role.

- after the above, I gave up on PS contracts as it seemed like a bit of a waste of time unless I had SC clearance

- plenty of PM contracts on offer (though recruiters did say that they're getting tons of applicants for these roles), a huge variety of rates for very similar roles with no real rhyme or reason. Financial services still paying the best

- lots of hybrid-in-name-only (ad-hoc office visits if needed) roles advertised, so don't get put off if you see Hybrid-Leeds as all it might mean is that you may need to go to Leeds once or twice during the contract

Got a decent 6 month contract with an insurance firm in the end, remote with rare travel to their office up north. The company is going through restructuring at the moment so god only knows how long this will last but that's the way it goes, no complaints.

[JustKeepSwimming]

Anyone else noticed a sudden rise in adverts with "X minimum years experience"?

I thought agents finally realised it was unlawful and knocked it on the head. Looks like they are using to try and deter applications.

Got a decent 6 month contract with an insurance firm in the end, remote with rare travel to their office up north. The company is going through restructuring at the moment so god only knows how long this will last but that's the way it goes, no complaints.

Do you have insurance experience? They really seem anal on it.

[PCTNN]

You are forgetting the fact that 90% of these roles are now inside so around a 35% cut vs outside so there are massive differences.

Comparing the few outside roles like for like with the old days maybe but that's not an accurate reflection on the situation

I'm comparing the rates of my contracts since I started contracting 4 years ago and the contracts available now in my area and skillset. 99% of contracts are inside now same as they were 4 years ago (public sector and banking...everything inside) and always in the 5-600 window now and back 4 years ago.

[edison]

Starting a new contract next Tuesday after my ongoing PS contract was nixed abruptly due to the department being asked to slash budgets and freeze hiring. My observations (mid-senior PM roles) from the last 2 weeks of hunting for a new contract in any sector -

- saw very few outside PM contracts.

- PS recruitment seems extremely unpredictable at the moment, at least as a PM. After my current PS contract was nixed, I quickly landed another PS contract through PSR, that was pulled a couple of days before I was supposed to start. Lots of roles advertised over the past weeks just disappeared.

- I had an NHS PM role that I landed at 550pd only for the agency to come back and sheepishly say that the NHS client changed the grade for the role which means that the day rate is now closer to 300 not 550! As far as I could tell it was the same bloody role.

- after the above, I gave up on PS contracts as it seemed like a bit of a waste of time unless I had SC clearance

- plenty of PM contracts on offer (though recruiters did say that they're getting tons of applicants for these roles), a huge variety of rates for very similar roles with no real rhyme or reason. Financial services still paying the best

- lots of hybrid-in-name-only (ad-hoc office visits if needed) roles advertised, so don't get put off if you see Hybrid-Leeds as all it might mean is that you may need to go to Leeds once or twice during the contract

Got a decent 6 month contract with an insurance firm in the end, remote with rare travel to their office up north. The company is going through restructuring at the moment so god only knows how long this will last but that's the way it goes, no complaints.

Insurance sector seems to be a rare bright spot. Saw a lot of PM, BA and similar roles advertised in September.

[quackhandle]

Last week I saw a SQL DBA role from BT with a salary of 28k (don' t think it was for a junior role), that's a good way to tell your customers we don't give a tulip about your data.

Then conversely I saw an 18m outside IR35 gig working for AWE at Aldermaston, however there was no remote and they wanted DV.

qh