State of the Market

[jamesbrown]

I suspect a lot of outside contracts don't get advertised anymore.

FWIW, that is my experience. Having a network is your best chance, but they are obviously rarer than a few years ago. There has always been a pretty large subset of the contracts "market" that doesn't involve procurement by advertising or agents, mostly towards the higher end of contracts by value and skills, including outside contracts, but also some contracts that are default inside due to having a decision making role at the client etc.

[agentzero]

Discussion of this survey on Reddit - which also seems to have a subreddit named "ContractorUK" - no idea if it is related to us!

https://www.reddit.com/r/ContractorU...tate_of_uk_it/

Contractors in contract and busy will not appreciate how bad the market is. I've acquired an £835/day role via a consulting firm in my specialism, but this was via my network and word of mouth. It wasn't advertised.

Contractors in contract can't argue with the job posting stats which make 2008 to 2014 look good after the banking collapse. I don't trust the outside ir35 respondents to that survey in regards to their optimism.

I recommend taking what contract you can now but have a plan B to move abroad temporarily because the UK appears to be in recession. My last contract involved visiting different offices across England and I definitely felt it was worse than 2009. Units everywhere to lease, even in busy areas.

In short, I don't think this is just ir35 changing the market, I think there is a recession across the UK but it's affecting IT more as we notice as soon as capital projects are scrapped.

[agentzero]

Right, need to get a German phone number sorted. Let's see what happens trying to be more proactive.

I have also reached out to previous colleagues from 20yrs ago to organize a reunion of sorts. Gonna be a bit weird and yes some of them were weird at the time but let's see what comes of it. At the worst, it may mean a few lamb chops at tayyabs I suppose.

I am not going to provide advice to you on working abroad to you after this post.

Good on you for targeting Germany, but you are doing this on the back of that herman_g poster who was helpful. Europe is a big continent, look at other countries. Have you visited any of them? I would recommend avoiding France for work, you will find it painful as a foreigner there.

Discover what country you like from your past visits and then target one or two countries. Given the effort you will be going to, don't limit yourself to Germany. Good luck.

[malvolio]

Contractors in contract and busy will not appreciate how bad the market is. I've acquired an £835/day role via a consulting firm in my specialism, but this was via my network and word of mouth. It wasn't advertised.

Contractors in contract can't argue with the job posting stats which make 2008 to 2014 look good after the banking collapse. I don't trust the outside ir35 respondents to that survey in regards to their optimism.

I recommend taking what contract you can now but have a plan B to move abroad temporarily because the UK appears to be in recession. My last contract involved visiting different offices across England and I definitely felt it was worse than 2009. Units everywhere to lease, even in busy areas.

In short, I don't think this is just ir35 changing the market, I think there is a recession across the UK but it's affecting IT more as we notice as soon as capital projects are scrapped.

We are not in recession (yet...) but employers have been dissuaded from hiring people because of Reeve's dogmatic predation on the people who generate the income for the UK with NICs and NMW increases, combined with Rayner's proposals for extending workers' rights.

You would think that would encourage and increase the use of external suppliers for short term uses, but that gets stymied by OPW rules. A genuine, Kafkaesque fustercluck on behalf of HMG.

[Cookielove]

Yep those two are dangerous due to their dimness....Rayner and Reeve's have played a blinder and screwed up royally....please get them away from government it is utterly mind boggling that they are Chancellor and Deputy PM with no credentials to be in those posts.

The NI hike has massively hit businesses and companies are pairing back on recruitment plus extending workers rights from day dot has also done the same...

Nothing is thought through....then old Kier still be flapping away, reading from a script and not answering any questions...none of these people have ever been in business nor understand how the private sector works....it is a shambles.

[Dorkeaux]

I am not going to provide advice to you on working abroad to you after this post.

Good on you for targeting Germany, but you are doing this on the back of that herman_g poster who was helpful. Europe is a big continent, look at other countries. Have you visited any of them? I would recommend avoiding France for work, you will find it painful as a foreigner there.

Discover what country you like from your past visits and then target one or two countries. Given the effort you will be going to, don't limit yourself to Germany. Good luck.

I agree with this as a plan b. Also correct about France, but some of us speak French so would have an easier time.
My oldest friend recently took a beautiful big permie role in Germany, so don't discount the permie roles abroad either. They sponsered him for a work permit and all.

I take oliverson's point about being an Englishman, but sometimes you have to show some flex and go where the work is.
Which is why I'm here! Taking all your jobs and women.

Just kidding about the women. I brought my own with me.

[Cookielove]

Any chance they will ever cancel IR35??

[WTFH]

I agree with this as a plan b. Also correct about France, but some of us speak French so would have an easier time.

Which makes Belgium an option worth looking at.

[eek]

Any chance they will ever cancel IR35??

The CBI went to HMRC to suggest this yesterday https://www.linkedin.com/posts/andre...0ZmD81nm-2_FbY

We’re calling for:
✅ An HMRC IR35 ‘Green Card’ clearance process – to remove barriers for genuine entrepreneurs selling services to larger firms
✅ A Statutory Automatic Self-Employment Status Test – to give contractors clearly running a business and hiring businesses tax certainty
✅ An HMRC Contracted-Out Services Tool – to cut procurement process red tape and reduce risk in contracting with outsourced service providers

You can guess how it went down..

[fiisch]

I think you and your friends are very much in a minority or have the mythical niche skills that the ancient scrolls tell us about.

Not at all - and I am not inferring that in any way. In fact, I've posted about suffering from imposter syndrome previously....

I'm a fairly vanilla BA who doesn't like running a workshop, if I can get consecutive outside IR35 contracts then that tells me the market isn't quite as bad as being made out on here.... The country is still very London-specific, I suspect I'd struggle if I was limiting to immediate local area, but provided I'm willing to show my face in London a couple of times a week, so far *touches wood* I've found plenty of follow-up contract as and when the time comes.