State of the Market

[SchumiStars]

What happened to all the app jobs?

Love to know who is building the apps for mobile devices. And then who is maintaining them. I mean companies like VuE (cinema) and tescos etc. will still need developers and projects completed.

2026? Perhaps England will win Euros and the markets will pickup. As I have said before, never seen it so bad for so long.

[willendure]

I think that's true to some extent, but strongly suspect high debt appetites given that people have become used to cheap debt.

I think a lot of people are just finding they don't have many options and both partners need to work to service the mortgage on a shoe box house, and both need a car on the never-never to get to the job to pay for it all. I don't look down on them, just feel sorry for them. Also worry about my teenaged children and how bad things are going to be for them as they enter the "real world". Moving out of the UK is not a bad idea for gen Z to consider.

[courtg9000]

Also worry about my teenaged children and how bad things are going to be for them as they enter the "real world". Moving out of the UK is not a bad idea for gen Z to consider.

In the same boat on this one, my daughter gets her A level results in a few hours time. Whatever happens if not going to be easy or get any easier for people at stage of life.

[uk contractor]

What happened to all the app jobs?

Love to know who is building the apps for mobile devices. And then who is maintaining them. I mean companies like VuE (cinema) and tescos etc. will still need developers and projects completed.

2026? Perhaps England will win Euros and the markets will pickup. As I have said before, never seen it so bad for so long.

Speak to the indian outsourcers mate they will have a finger or 2 in all pies by now you will not even get a sniff of the work UNLESS someone paying the bills at the end clients insists on a PROPER contractor not some boot camp crammer sitting in a room remotely full of other boot camp crammers using google search to code LOL!

[avonleigh]

Son got his a-level results this morning, all good and has got into Nottingham Uni to study Computer Science. Incredibly proud of him. Just hope the job market is much better in 3 years time.

[TheDude]

Congrats. Let us know when you complete your first full day.

4 days in now!

[TheDude]

August 2025 - state of the market, 60k, perm, leeds, 5 days onsite.

On historical averages we have clicked over to approximatley June 2008 rather than May 2008, so thats a plus. Only 6 months to go before a bit of an uptick.

Rachel Reeves - hold my pint.

That's a decent salary for Leeds and if you were local would offer a decent life.

[oliverson]

That's a decent salary for Leeds and if you were local would offer a decent life.

I'm half-an-hour from Leeds. Believe me, it's definitely not cheap. I don't think anywhere is these days, especially in the UK.

I once worked at a software house in Leeds back in 2001/2 and became a casualty of lay-offs due to the dotcom crash. My salary was £ 30k at the time, which, according to the Bank of England inflation calculator, would be worth just over £ 56k in today's money. In all honesty, I was only a rookie back then. As a result of that lay off, I was on the bench for a year (there's definitely a theme here throughout my IT career), and it resulted in me starting my own business, initially selling IT equipment and services and then down the contracting route).

Six months on the bench now, if I ignore my 'soft' retirement, and the market is so bad now that like back in 2002, I think I'm heading in a new direction, working on my own stuff with the odd bit of contracting if something just happens to fall into my lap.

[mogga71]

In the same boat on this one, my daughter gets her A level results in a few hours time. Whatever happens if not going to be easy or get any easier for people at stage of life.

I was reading the horror stories of recent Oxford grads trying to get jobs this morning. My son has just finished his first year of law at Uni. I am not expecting him to get a job after it TBH .... the job market for youngsters is a monumental disaster and will only get worse. My wife and I are cutting back on everything .... including holidays... in preparation for us being able to leave a decent amount of money for him. At this point I am so glad we only have one child to worry about. Things are already bad ... AI will be the killer blow. TBH I would question whether it's even worth going Uni any more .... may be better off just trying to get a manual job.

[Cookielove]

Agree mogga71 the future is very unsettling for youngsters....jobs are just not there any longer as lot of us know it is very difficult to secure a role for young or old...I'm in latter category and it is slim pickings ....just nothing....I think IT contract market as we knew it is over and it is time to do something else....whatever that is ?!?!

AI, outsourcing/offshoring to India which is so wide spread and the visas fiasco has hammered so many sectors especially IT....

I don't think uni is worth it now to come out with student debt and the dire job prospects - better to get a manual job/trade etc

On top of that impossible to buy and get on the housing ladder on one salary that used to be doable but not now.