The demise of Jobserve/Total Jobs etc for IT contracts

[JohnM]

I have always used Jobserve for new contracts for the past 20 years. However the last 12 months have seen it steadly decline to the point where there are literally 10-20 contracts nationwide posted a day now. Sometimes only 10 or 11

Before lockdown there was around 100 per day

There are several reasons for this, linkedin seems to be where most contracts are posted now my last two have been direct with no agencies which must be causing huge concern for the agencies

Also the contractor market is probably at an all time low now IR35 has been around for a couple of years which has made even more clients outsource a lot of their development/architecture roles.

I am hoping the move to hybrid working again from a lot of clients will result in more and more UK based contract roles, however this does not seem to be the case at the minute.

[northernladuk]

I have always used Jobserve for new contracts for the past 20 years. However the last 12 months have seen it steadly decline to the point where there are literally 10-20 contracts nationwide posted a day now. Sometimes only 10 or 11

Before lockdown there was around 100 per day

I don't believe it was a 100 a day for your skill set. IMO it hasn't been like that for many many years as the good old days turned in to a sh*tfest of every permie jumping in.

From what I remember looking at it it's about the same as it's been for a long time for me and just checking today there are actually more roles on than I'd normally expect.

Not that I've spent a lot of time looking at it as I've been in two gigs for the entire period you are talking about but seem about what it's always been for me.

There are several reasons for this, linkedin seems to be where most contracts are posted now my last two have been direct with no agencies which must be causing huge concern for the agencies

I can see that linkedin might be causing an impact on jobserve and the like but I find there linkedin ones are pretty trash TBH and in there are all the ones on jobserve. I've not seen any direct ones in my area. I wouldn't say either are beating the other. Just more choice. It's our job to scout every board and other role resources like the Gov frameworks to find work. They are bound to change size over time like any business. Jobserve can't be leading the way like it was 10 years ago.

Also the contractor market is probably at an all time low now IR35 has been around for a couple of years which has made even more clients outsource a lot of their development/architecture roles.

It's an all time low because it's become standard for companys to get contractors in than it is to resource. Everywhere I've been for as long as I can remember has been over resourced using contractors. I don't see the demand for contractors decresasing much but I do see a massive influx of contractors.

I am hoping the move to hybrid working again from a lot of clients will result in more and more UK based contract roles, however this does not seem to be the case at the minute.

What do you mean again? You were before? What do you mean it doesn't seem to be the case. There are tons of roles that are hybrid around at the moment. What are you seeing?

[Fraidycat]

Outside finance, companies cant find good contractors for 500 or 600 a day (inside IR35), and don't want to pay 800 a day. So they just hire good perms for 80K to 100K instead.

In the old days it was 50K perm vs 500 a day contract (and outside IR35 as well).

[GigiBronz]

Outside finance, companies cant find good contractors for 500 or 600 a day (inside IR35), and don't want to pay 800 a day. So they just hire good perms for 80K to 100K instead.

In the old days it was 50K perm vs 500 a day contract (and outside IR35 as well).

Now it is 60k and someone fresh off boat that is too naive to understand the cost of living beforehand. Or makes the decision for other selfish reason.

Plenty of people love tech but once you are doing it as a job love starts to fade out. And once you realise how little you are left with in the current cost of living situation(which has been going for years) you start exploring other avenues.

The only local people that are still in the game, are the ones that failed at everything else and also stopped fighting for it.

[edison]

It's staggering how Jobserve pretty much looks the same as 10 years ago. Practically zero investment in improving it as a website/app.

One of the problems with large job boards is the ease of applying for roles with 'one click to apply' functionality. On one hand, it's never been easier to look for roles, on the other, it's never been easier for hundreds of people to apply for one.

I found such sites were becoming a waste of time years ago. Only one of my last eight roles since 2015 came from a job board.

[SussexSeagull]

Jobserve became a bit of a blunt instrument due to agents putting out non existent jobs to harvest CVs and every contract getting hundreds of applications within hours, which frankly turned the whole process into a lottery.

LinkedIn is getting better, although some of the adverts send you down a rabbit hole of links, but it seems to be all about your network and contacts now.

[GigiBronz]

People that are complaining that the recruitment industry has not changed in many years and practices are at least unproductive.

Well, I believe you should at least think that it is working as it is supposed to for the employer class.

The path of least resistance is representing the employer class interests first.

It is just being ignorant on how the world works.

Maybe Musk should buy Linkedin after all… although I do think that he might be something else.

[edison]

People that are complaining that the recruitment industry has not changed in many years and practices are at least unproductive.

Well, I believe you should at least think that it is working as it is supposed to for the employer class.

The path of least resistance is representing the employer class interests first.

It is just being ignorant on how the world works.

Maybe Musk should buy Linkedin after all… although I do think that he might be something else.

As has been pointed out on here many times, recruitment agents work for the end client and are paid by them, not the contractor. The better agents are at least vaguely interested in you.

As for the employer class, well there has been a shift in the proportion of national income that goes to corporations and shareholders and away from employees for the last three or four decades, this is nothing new.

The ease that which companies can reallocate capital almost anywhere they want has reduced the relative importance of 'local' employees. Governments give companies huge amounts of tax breaks and the ones that can afford top tax accountants and lawyers can significantly reduce their tax. It's win, win, win for employers (except this week if you're a bank it seems.)

[edison]

Maybe Musk should buy Linkedin after all… although I do think that he might be something else.

Microsoft own LinkedIn and there's almost zero chance of them selling it.

Revenue increased by 600% since 2017 to $14.5B in 2022 and it generates a lot of advertising. Looking at Microsoft's last quarterly earnings report, they are clearly starting to invest a lot in it.

[GigiBronz]

The change should probably come from gov indeed. That would be the entity responsible for levelling up the playing field.
IF you could know have a broad job description and statistics on applicants:

If a role has been live for 1 year, people are continuously applying and getting interviews but nobody gets hired. It's probably used for other purpose.
You'd be wasting your time applying to it.

Salary range stated in the advert.

Seniority level, hours, overtime, everything should be stated before going through a lengthy interview process. Not pushed down your throat later on when you've already done 5 stages.

Guarantee that a job advert is actually backed by a role. 60% of the roles on JobServe I believe never existed. They just harvest cv's and your data.

Recruiters calling out of the blue wasting your time and bossing you around. If you apply for roles people will call you randomly. If you are doing anything else that day you have to stop and take the call. It's very inconvenient and unproductive.
4 calls at 30min intervals and you've ruined an entire day.
Most of them these days do not have any roles either, they just call for office exercises, searching for leads... and other reasons described on state of the market.


But probably with automation and GPT-4 in sight, the next change that we'll see is that a lot less humans will be necessary.
And how our WEF masters describe it, the challenge becomes "getting rid of the useless eaters".