General Long term Erosion of Contract market

[d000hg]

The funny bit is you sit at your desk and look around. Hardly anybody is a 'native' while all the natives are sat on the bench. Is it a question of ability to do the job or ability to work for less money? Definitely the latter.

You sound very BNP, can you define 'native'? I've worked a few places and the only non-English person I ever worked with was a French guy. I've never worked in a company alongside anyone who didn't have a British passport...

[d000hg]

I don't disagree with being competitive the point I take issue with is that using price alone is not a realistic comparison

agreed.

Certainly in my experience you tend to get what you pay for.

So a consultancy charging £1000/day is better than a contractor at £350/day then?

[gadgetman]

Of course not. If the consultancy is paying the consultant peanuts then the same principle applies.

agreed.

So a consultancy charging £1000/day is better than a contractor at £350/day then?

[Ignis Fatuus]

Company in UK can do job for one price, company abroad can do it for another - if you want the homegrown work to be competitive, you need to think about the price point your company charges - there's competition from the import market now.




Their companies, can do it cheaper. End of. You want the work? Be competitive about it!

Sure. On a level playing field, with taxes, house prices, transport etc at the same levels as the competition. Which the government could make happen: allow building anywhere with no regulation, and let us bring in foreign, sorry optimally-priced, labour to build our houses, without all the costly regulation that they made that pushes our prices up. The government needs to be competitive too.

[cojak]

The government have allowed this to happen. So much for 'creating British jobs for British people'. More like 'taking British jobs from British people'.

This whole industry (and country) is beginning to sicken me. Yep, I'm having a bad day but this industry is no longer the same and it never will be. Yep I might get the next £ 800 a day contract I just missed out on but for every possible me there's a hundred definite others who are seeing their livelihood evaporate. Criminal. Rule Britannia.

The funny bit is you sit at your desk and look around. Hardly anybody is a 'native' while all the natives are sat on the bench. Is it a question of ability to do the job or ability to work for less money? Definitely the latter.

Then find a new niche, learn it and make that next £800pd.

Or be prepared to accept £700pd for the next contract.

Sorry, not a lot of sympathy for that type of whinging.

[ChimpMaster]

Then find a new niche, learn it and make that next £800pd.

Or be prepared to accept £700pd for the next contract.

Sorry, not a lot of sympathy for that type of whinging.

Empathically I can understand why people whinge, because they (or their wife...) have become accustomed to a certain level of income and would like that income to continue unabated for as long as possible.

Personally, when I started out contracting I saw it as an awesome but impermanent opportunity to increase my household wealth. I never did see it as an income that would last for a generation - though it might have in the past. It's only been a few years but I would be more than happy to get a total of 10 years contracting - with some prudent planning I would have little to worry about after that.

Eventually my contracting life - as it is now - will end. Already the online tech forums are 90% Bobs (...asking how to open page 1 of the Manual). But move on we must and move on we will.

[Fred Bloggs]

I have seen a huge influx of asian and east european types coming into process engineering and it is having a devastating effect on opportunities for us in the west. Middle east positions are now probably 80% likely to be filled by lower cost but highly qualified asian engineers. I'm glad I probably only have another 10 years to work before I retire. By then there'll be very little left for us outside of probably the defence and nuclear industries where Bob and his mates will hopefully remain locked outside.

[Sausage Surprise]

There's always bloody doom and gloom on here.....don't know why I keep coming back

[theroyale]

In 5 years or thereabouts, offshoring will have become expensive enough to no longer be a beneficial option. Inflation in India averages 10% consistently, with wage inflation in I.T. running even higher.

Simply not true. On the contrary starting salaries for software programmers in India has probably gone DOWN over the last decade as it becomes less of a specialised, 'high-class' skill. In the 90s only the best graduates who could afford going to tailored courses paying lots of money got into IT; now technology institutes have mushroomed, graduating hundreds of thousands of young people from ever-lower social classes every year. The big software houses in India recognise this of course, they know these trends like the back of their hand: I hear that just-graduated kids joining these firms are being paid lower than ever before (even as rents in Indian cities have skyrocketed).

[mobi]

I was reading a book titled "23 things they don't tell you about capitalism".

The author argued there that in western world, people are paid more than they deserve! So the high wage is an inflated level. Just like house price, it will come down. This inflated wage is only possible because of immigration control. If the control is lifted (which is mostly the case with UK), the influx of migrant workers will bring down the wage.

Let's be honest, an average local candidate does not offer any more capability than an average migrant IT pro.