State of the Market

[NotAllThere]

[Bluenose]

And the promising spike up in the jobserve headline number is now back to what it was earlier this year.

40 months, this IT jobs market recession has now turned in to a depression.

With the perm market almost as bad as the contract market from what I can tell.

Keeping true to the evidence that falling markets never fall in a stright line.

No change in the trajectory at this point for 2025.

[WTFH]

Keeping true to the evidence that falling markets never fall in a stright line.

No change in the trajectory at this point for 2025.

Fraidy is still in denial about the decline, claiming a thread that is almost 10 years old really only started just over 3 years ago.

In other market news, I see the FTSE hit an all-time high on 12/11/25, so it’s not all bad.

[Fraidycat]

Fraidy is still in denial about the decline, claiming a thread that is almost 10 years old really only started just over 3 years ago.

In other market news, I see the FTSE hit an all-time high on 12/11/25, so it’s not all bad.

The UK in general and the IT sector had falling unemployment all the way from 2011 to 2020.

2016 to 2020 were very good years as hiring increased and unemployment fell across the board.

2021 was a boom year as Tech hiring ramped up and unemployment fell after Covid.

That 2021 tech boom was followed by a bust in 2022 that is still on going.

Unemployment in both the UK and IT sector been increasing for the last 40 months.


This chart is part of the official UK ONS unemployment chart since 2011.

[sadkingbilly]

which market IS this the state of?
stock market? jobs market? ollie's got a gig market? fraidy's fearful forecasts?
asking for a friend.

[Fraidycat]

Covid year, 2020, aside. The vast majority of contractors had it good between 2011 and 2022.

There may have been a very small minority that struggled between 2011 and 2022, but that was probably down to them (out of date skillset) but not due to the state of the market.

It has only been since mid 2022 that large numbers of contractors have been struggling to find anything at all.

[sadkingbilly]

there have been boom times and lean times since 1972 in contracting.
it didn't start in 199x or whenever webdevs were conceived.
contracting's about surviving the vagaries.

[avonleigh]

Covid year, 2020, aside. The vast majority of contractors had it good between 2011 and 2022.

There may have been a very small minority that struggled between 2011 and 2022, but that was probably down to them (out of date skillset) but not due to the state of the market.

It has only been since mid 2022 that large numbers of contractors have been struggling to find anything at all.

Totally agree on this. The market has only been in decline since 2022.

And big congrats to Oliverson.