State of the Market

[willendure]

5 days a week onsite in some sort of god awful market town where there is nowhere decent to sleep isnt what I had in mind

Not even for the defence of the realm? You work shy deserter!

[dsc]

5 days a week onsite in some sort of god awful market town where there is nowhere decent to sleep isnt what I had in mind

Hey, some say Barrow-in-Furness is lovely in spring.

[oliverson]

The market, or lack of, continues to shock me.

In my London banking years (2007-18 mainly) I had many interviews, even in the financial crash there were plenty. I remember these times with pain, anguish but fondness. Emails with so many contract. specs attached I had to ask the agents to filter them out and send me only the ones that were a good match. Bulging .zip files of specs, the phone didn't really stop ringing. Imagine that!

After my London years, I contracted mainly in the north and/or fully remote. I'm now reflecting on the last 10 years and it's quite shocking. In that time I've had 6 different contracts with 3 different clients, 1 spell on the bench lasting 17 months over the covid period and this latest spell of 7 months and counting. In all of that time I've only landed 3 of those 6 contracts in a 10 year period. THREE. In fact, flipping from past client to past client repeatedly and I've hardly had any interviews in a decade. But the more worrying thing is the interview requests, well they've basically fallen off a cliff, especially via the old tried and tested JobServe.

If I was going into business today and walked into a bank with a business plan, given the last decade, and especially the last 5 years, well, I'm sure they'd have me escorted from the premises.

At what point will the penny drop for me that my business is no longer viable and my better days are behind me?

[Bluenose]

The market, or lack of, continues to shock me.

I hate to say it but big business that is UK centric will be waiting for the Labour conference now and then the budget.

Big EU business will be waiting to see if France implodes.

Leaving the USA to carry on.

[krytonsheep]

The market, or lack of, continues to shock me.

I do wonder if everything HMRC have done with IR35 and the new legislation has led to reduced tax revenues in the IT sector, because it's inadvertently destroyed the contracting industry.

[oliverson]

I do wonder if everything HMRC have done with IR35 and the new legislation has led to reduced tax revenues in the IT sector, because it's inadvertently destroyed the contracting industry.

But is it 'inadvertently' or is it by intent? I'd say the latter.

[dsc]

I do wonder if everything HMRC have done with IR35 and the new legislation has led to reduced tax revenues in the IT sector, because it's inadvertently destroyed the contracting industry.

It's worth noting that HMRC most likely does see this as "destroying" the contracting industry, they see this as a win, the whole idea behind the legislation was to reduce outside contracts. Now whether reduced income from outside contracts vs what they get from the increased amount of inside ones is a positive change, it's a different matter.

[willendure]

Well, I dunno. Don't get too exicted about your HMRC conspiracy theories that they just wanted to destroy contracting. Apart from their inherent ideological opposition to entrepeneurship, I don't think contractors submitting corporation tax filings was ever much of a headache for them, especially when these things were all correctly prepared by accountants, it was more likely a no-brainer.

Sure, IR35 has defnitely been a factor. But just one factor amongst many - and there are still 2x the number of outside contracts being advertised as inside. Interest rates, tech cycle, off shoring, immigration, under investment, inflation and so on are all factors in play that have taken us to this point.

[oliverson]

Well, I dunno. Don't get too exicted about your HMRC conspiracy theories that they just wanted to destroy contracting. Apart from their inherent ideological opposition to entrepeneurship, I don't think contractors submitting corporation tax filings was ever much of a headache for them, especially when these things were all correctly prepared by accountants, it was more likely a no-brainer.

Sure, IR35 has defnitely been a factor. But just one factor amongst many - and there are still 2x the number of outside contracts being advertised as inside. Interest rates, tech cycle, off shoring, immigration, under investment, inflation and so on are all factors in play that have taken us to this point.

That's not what I'm seeing, in fact I'd say it was quite the opposite.

[sadkingbilly]

one man LTD webdevs = 'entrepreneurs'