State of the Market

[JustKeepSwimming]

Just got boomed. Posted a mini rant online and a fellow contractor saw it said their company was hiring, interview next day, offer today.

Someone has an expensive bottle of whisky going their way.

considering the pot luck that is recruiting, recommendations go a huge way. The amount of people I've seen be hired who wouldn't have past HR just because someone in the team recommended them in insane.

Decent rate?

[avonleigh]

Just got boomed. Posted a mini rant online and a fellow contractor saw it said their company was hiring, interview next day, offer today.

Someone has an expensive bottle of whisky going their way.

Excellent, nice to see some positive news. Well done.

[FIERCE TANK BATTLE]

considering the pot luck that is recruiting, recommendations go a huge way. The amount of people I've seen be hired who wouldn't have past HR just because someone in the team recommended them in insane.

Decent rate?

Yeah for sure, usually you can get them in without a recruiter as well, which can be a nice rate bonus, although this gig is unfortunately recruiter-only, they obviously don't mind spaffing away 50-100 quid per day just to send an invoice to a different bank account at the end of the month.

Rate 400/day outside, quite the step down from last gig but just happy to be getting anything in this market.

[JustKeepSwimming]

Yeah for sure, usually you can get them in without a recruiter as well, which can be a nice rate bonus, although this gig is unfortunately recruiter-only, they obviously don't mind spaffing away 50-100 quid per day just to send an invoice to a different bank account at the end of the month.

Rate 400/day outside, quite the step down from last gig but just happy to be getting anything in this market.

It's probably because they rather just pay a couple of agencies each month rather than deal with individual ltds/umbrellas. Exclusivity for a fixed rate cut and save on any agro with multiple payees.

Is outside important to you? In FS pretty much got no chance of ever seeing outside again.

[dsc]

[...]Is outside important to you? In FS pretty much got no chance of ever seeing outside again.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of contracting in terms of earnings? or is it still worth it in some scenarios?

[JustKeepSwimming]

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of contracting in terms of earnings? or is it still worth it in some scenarios?

I'm coming to that conclusion. The main benefits to outside to me would obviously be travel costs if applicable and being able to retain profits and then ER in a few years. Hybrid/remote has somewhat reduced the expenses benefit, and inflation/interest rates impact the ER benefit.

Inside the benefit is you effectively get cash instead of employee benefits which you may not want/value. As im happy to put everything above £50k into pension that is still a benefit.

However, IME the day rate to salary difference no longer offsets the inherent risk of inside contracting. Even if you got a super cushy permatractor local inside gig at a competitive rate it's not going to be long before your rate isn't competitive and you're going to have to start looking elsewhere and risk an uncushy commute.

So I think I am leaning towards a perm and reassess if the market changes.

The sense im getting from FS contractors is it's only really those who care about the maximum £ in their bank account rather than those who care about 'value'. Lot of people are treading water on contract rates and couldn't survive with a take home paycut of a perm, even if they would prefer it.

My thinking might be different if I was in London where there will always be a local gig.

[dsc]

[...]
However, IME the day rate to salary difference no longer offsets the inherent risk of inside contracting. Even if you got a super cushy permatractor local inside gig at a competitive rate it's not going to be long before your rate isn't competitive and you're going to have to start looking elsewhere and risk an uncushy commute.
[...]

Agreed, although I'd add that it's much harder now to get a perm job, so it seems like it's outside vs bench for a lot (probably one of the reasons why so many turn to perm as the emergency solution but seems like that door is locked atm). Niche areas seem to be still paying high rates, but typically for those you need to know the right people or have ex-clients wanting more, but even that has a downside, you either get paid a lot or not at all (as it's niche), so on average it's crap.

I always said that the IR35 changes will kick in big time at some stage and you only need the right mixture of enough outside-willing to make the market tip into outside only pretty much. Seems like in some industries that has already happened.

[JustKeepSwimming]

Agreed, although I'd add that it's much harder now to get a perm job, so it seems like it's outside vs bench for a lot (probably one of the reasons why so many turn to perm as the emergency solution but seems like that door is locked atm). Niche areas seem to be still paying high rates, but typically for those you need to know the right people or have ex-clients wanting more, but even that has a downside, you either get paid a lot or not at all (as it's niche), so on average it's crap.

I always said that the IR35 changes will kick in big time at some stage and you only need the right mixture of enough outside-willing to make the market tip into outside only pretty much. Seems like in some industries that has already happened.

FS is pretty much blanket inside. I've seen super niche resources (and golfing buddy of director) still be refused outside. Then a huge argument over inside (or FTC) rate.

From what i've experience whilst headcount freezes does reduce the number of perm roles, ie no growth, they do tend to allow like for like replacement unless things are really bad. In the past the replacement would often be a contractor, but last few years it seems they have done away with that. FTCs a lot more common than they used to be with some banks.

I'm not sure I'm seeing outside returning to FS unless we go back to previous IR35 rules, even then I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

The niche I have just left, Workday, is now 98% inside gigs. You need to be very niche in that niche to even get anyone talking about outside gigs.

I have given up and gone perm.

[PCTNN]

I got approached for an extremely rare outside ir35 gig. I ticked all the boxes, for real, but the client wants people in the office 3 days a week with NO flexibility and the office is 1.5hr away so unfortunately I had to say no. No flexibility from the client so why should I show any. I'm willing to do 2 days in the office and not one second more.