Contract market currently pants ?

[uk contractor]

Stock market volatility is most likely behind this uncertain period. It keeps swinging a few % in either direction causing the Financial Controllers to look at their playbooks then announce to the business no new hires until it settles down but as this pattern has persisted for almost 4 months its impossible to know when/if it will settle down & bring the contract market back to relative normality

[Intel]

Well I'm looking for Microsoft development work, C#, Asp.net etc etc. My specialism is OpenText MBPM (formerly Metastorm).

What is yours?

Microsoft SQL Server. Data platform or Business Intelligence. I'm very much a specialist though so tend to work on shorter term gigs that pay higher rates / emergencies where C# developers didn't validate their input and someone entered "suityou01;Drop Database Salaries" in the LastName box on a form.....

[suityou01]

I guess this all depends on your specialism. I'm turning down a gig every couple of weeks on average. Been trying to get some time off for bloody ages....

Well I'm looking for Microsoft development work, C#, Asp.net etc etc. My specialism is OpenText MBPM (formerly Metastorm).

What is yours?

[Intel]

I guess this all depends on your specialism. I'm turning down a gig every couple of weeks on average. Been trying to get some time off for bloody ages....

[suityou01]

Yes, it's pants.

[SpontaneousOrder]

Market was nuts when I was looking 2 months back. Feels lively to me currently too, although i've not been looking closely.

[Boney M]

Not had any issues myself, my current contract was due to finish next Friday and the client didnt get the ok yet for the extension, I applied to two roles and had an interview slot booked within a couple of hours for both and then got extended for another 3 months, my phone hasnt stopped either throughout

[ShandyDrinker]

I don't think things are too bad in the south-west right now. I got a job pretty quickly before I even started phoning around, and my bloomin' nokia 3310 has decided it wants to turn off randomly so recruiters have struggled to get in touch :S

Same here. When I was last looking earlier in the summer the market seemed quite good in the south-west. Certainly in the the MS stack development (C# etc) market it's unfortunate that the vast majority of (decently) paying contracts are in London. Hardly surprising when something like 70+% of contracts are based in London and the south-east.

[NibblyPig]

I don't think things are too bad in the south-west right now. I got a job pretty quickly before I even started phoning around, and my bloomin' nokia 3310 has decided it wants to turn off randomly so recruiters have struggled to get in touch :S

[ShandyDrinker]

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...ml#post2148649
This is what we have been talking about here for ages sadly. At least its not sector specific or skills specific its a general downturn which has been ongoing since the spring.

Ahh... I hadn't been keeping an eye on that particular thread but it does appear that the market is slow at the moment. Just reading the thread it is quite worrying that the general slowdown in combination with the proposed changes for T&S, IR35 and dividends mean that tough times are ahead.

[uk contractor]

http://forums.contractoruk.com/busin...ml#post2148649
This is what we have been talking about here for ages sadly. At least its not sector specific or skills specific its a general downturn which has been ongoing since the spring.

[ShandyDrinker]

From what I have heard this week with one major IB recently announcing a 10% rate cut and a rumours of another bank lining one up for January, I think it is probably now the time to batten down the hatches. While I agree that if the warchest allows you should hold out for the right roles and higher rates, many people just don't have that option.

Good luck to everyone out there searching... hopefully the last few months of the year will see a turnaround or 2016 will be much better.

[Milkyway]

You are not alone

I have lots of top-end technologies expertise, and am in the very high rate bracket (600+, and NOT Finance/banks industry too), and have just finished over 2 years contract (multiple renewals) project in a very respectable organisation - 100% hands on role, etc.

In the past 12 years of contracting, I have never seen anything like this mess. The maximum time between contracts for me has been 6 days.

I have been looking for the past 6 weeks, had about 12 calls (yes - 12) so far - no interviews landed as yet!

I have only seen 2 "real" roles so far, and they are paying rat's ass!
I won't budge to sh** rates, and am not desperate for money now - so can hold on until i get my level of role and rate.

I can vouch the market is pants!
Only fake jobs are being advertised by agents. (I wonder why there isn't a law against agencies and companies posting fraud/fake jobs that don't exist! It is certainly a crime in some sense!)

The agents are telling me that no client is signing off any new roles, and one even accepted it was a fake job that they had advertised, when he called me to talk about it
Because i asked him straight on his face!

Such is the state of affairs!

If your war chest money is strong, i would say wait for good roles.

If you pick up something low rated now just because the market is sh**, I have a feeling it will affect the next roles once the market gets better - since most of the agents these days say they want to know the "current rate" (I have no idea why?) - which for me has been very very good so far, so I don't want to be in a position later to say my current rate is low rate, because i took up a sh** role because the market was pants. So i will wait.

So beware!

[TykeMerc]

I've just started looking for a new role and I'm being pretty damn picky if I'm honest, my read of the market this week is that it's fairly buoyant compared to the last 5 years.
Mind you I've been taking some time off and only just started to look so I've not been annoyed by the endless spam merchants and aspiring big game fishing types from agencies yet.

[Boo]

Am I the only one finding the current UK contract market to be completely pants ? Jobserve postings down from 20-30 per day to the 4-8 region and calls from agents all a complete waste of time ("what's your rate, what's your rate, what's your rate...")

Anyone know what gives ?

Boo