State of the Market

[Cookielove]

Yep rates have totally collapsed....am working inside and rate isn't great plus swallowing the travel costs = I'm earning less than 20 years ago...grim!!

Some rates are circa £300 inside ....there is a massive over saturation of candidates.

Minimum wage type jobs requiring no skills would bring in over £100 per day how can that stack up when some IT roles paying sub £300 ....I've seen £250!

It is crazy what is going on...IT skills not valued anymore.

If I didn't have commitments I'd throw the towel in it's game over...

[oliverson]

I don't really want to discuss rates but my previous two inside gigs have netted far more than any outside gigs I have had.

Pro tip - don't get too hung up on what you hand over to the taxman - it was never yours.

I guess it depends on location. If you're in the commuter belt or in London itself and can net a big rate then it could work, but some of us live miles away from London. My travel and accommodation expenses were about £ 30k a year and that's several years ago. Dread to think what they would be like now. £ 30k out of heavily taxed personal income? No thanks.

[SussexSeagull]

From my viewpoint market showing absolutely no sign of picking up.

[SchumiStars]

Luckily for me I have a big, unaffordable home in London.

Can't wait until HS2 if/when gets going because that will bring more people to London, I mean if only we could WFH and save cost and time for us and the object company?!

Market is not coming back. This is not a dip. This is a permanent change to the IT sector. The quicker we understand this, the quicker it is to be happy.

[oliverson]

Luckily for me I have a big, unaffordable home in London.

Can't wait until HS2 if/when gets going because that will bring more people to London, I mean if only we could WFH and save cost and time for us and the object company?!

Market is not coming back. This is not a dip. This is a permanent change to the IT sector. The quicker we understand this, the quicker it is to be happy.

It's taken you almost 3 years to come to this conclusion? Lol.

The frustrating thing about this is that I'm seeing roles advertised but the vast majority are inside, but without any real increase to compensate for that. In fact some of the rates are just taking the piss.

Worrying thing I read yesterday was that Rachael from accounts is considering not only abolishing the dividend tax allowance, paltry as it now is, but increasing the dividend tax rate to be aligned with income tax rates. That would be see a typical tax bill of £ 3,200 or something to OVER SEVEN ******* GRAND. Multiply that by two (one for me, the other for the missus) and it just kills my business model and sees me probably leaving the country. I suspect a lot of small companies paying themselves in this way will fold. An unmitigated disaster.

[TheDude]

I guess it depends on location. If you're in the commuter belt or in London itself and can net a big rate then it could work, but some of us live miles away from London. My travel and accommodation expenses were about £ 30k a year and that's several years ago. Dread to think what they would be like now. £ 30k out of heavily taxed personal income? No thanks.

I have sympathy but arbitraging between cheap living and well paid work was always going to be risky. The banks are moving a of dev work out into the provinces and they are not doing it so they can pay London rates to people who live in (say) Birmingham.

[Protagoras]

Worrying thing I read yesterday was that Rachael from accounts is considering not only abolishing the dividend tax allowance, paltry as it now is, but increasing the dividend tax rate to be aligned with income tax rates.

I reckon that the majority of the population would not have any issue with taxing unearned income on the same basis as earned income. So in terms of generating yet more tax revenue, this one could be quite easy to get over the line.

In my circle, younger folk have gone permy, older ones are just hanging on for as long as possible then retiring.

[Cookielove]

oliverson I saw that she is totally incompetent and so far out of her depth....that will kill small businesses it is terrifying that she is in charge as Chancellor...they are so anti business it beggars belief...her and Angela Rayner who according to leaked papers wanted the Chancellor to hit savers and investors in the spring statement...it is madness.

I hope somehow we don't have 4 more years of Labour or we will have nothing left...it has been an unmitigated disaster am deeply worried for youngsters....and what they are facing on all fronts...

[SussexSeagull]

I reckon that the majority of the population would not have any issue with taxing unearned income on the same basis as earned income. So in terms of generating yet more tax revenue, this one could be quite easy to get over the line.

In my circle, younger folk have gone permy, older ones are just hanging on for as long as possible then retiring.

At some point someone was going to look at money made through work and money made through investment (which Dividends technically are) and ask why they are taxed differently.

[oliverson]

At some point someone was going to look at money made through work and money made through investment (which Dividends technically are) and ask why they are taxed differently.

The reason being that the money has already had Corporation Tax applied to it.