Reply to: State of the Market

[Fraidycat]

She must have some secret place where only 'proper' contractors have access to.

Sounds like Only Fans

[avonleigh]

Where do you look to see this?

She must have some secret place where only 'proper' contractors have access to.

[edison]

I'm seeing a noticeable increase in perm roles in my niches over the last month but only a very small uptick on the contract side.

I got a nice email yesterday from a world famous FMCG company saying there were 'impressed with my application' but still didn't want to interview me LOL. In the current market, that's almost a victory!

[sreed]

Couldn't say specifically for outside contracts or for other roles, but generally speaking there's definitely been a jump in PM, change and transformation roles across perm, FTC and contracts over the past couple of months - looking on LI, Reed and Jobserve. The pay isn't anything to shout about but still it is positive.

Linkedin "insight" from this morning

[Unix]

Really seeing things open up since start of financial year. Lots of remote, Outside roles for proper contractors.

Yeah seeing the same, really picking up now boom!!!

[northernladuk]

Where do you look to see this?

I was thinking the same

[willendure]

Really seeing things open up since start of financial year. Lots of remote, Outside roles for proper contractors.

Where do you look to see this?

[Cookielove]

I'm starting to feel that way! Someone I know had an interview for a senior PMO role yesterday and it turned out the rate was just £150/day inside. Might as well stack supermarket shelves.

Seems the agent lied to him before his CV was sent over about the real rate...

Only thing keeping me going is a few friends have landed gigs in the last 3-4 weeks albeit at relatively low rates. Something has got to land soon

Really £150 inside?? wow....for a senior PMO.

Yep better off stacking selves in Tesco and getting staff discount on your shopping...that is mad!

[PerfectStorm]

Really seeing things open up since start of financial year. Lots of remote, Outside roles for proper contractors.

[edison]

As a generalist PM, I’m quite surprised to hear about your friend’s experience with looking for PM roles, at least based on when I was last in the market (last summer), and the superficial view of what I’m seeing since then on the job portals.

One that he could find more than 1-2 contract roles to apply for on a daily basis and two that he couldn’t find a suitable role for many months. Perhaps he’s been quite discerning or is locationally restricted?

The pay on offer isn’t anything to shout about but there are a decent number of inside tech-ish/generalist PM roles out there paying £500+ imho. All the inside PM roles I’ve landed in the past few years have been through applying on LI, PSR, Reed and following up with a short note on LI. I only get the odd contact from recruiters on LI, it’s almost always for a perm role.

I'm not 100% sure, I think a large proportion have been perm applications. He has been a contractor for over 15 years which as well documented on this forum, is a high barrier to overcome when applying for perm roles. He's based in London which is in close proximity to many jobs and he's been more flexible on rate as his bench time has increased.

I know many contractor friends who have been looking for anything from three to nine months. Several have got roles in the last 4-5 weeks so there is still hope (I keep telling myself!)

[sreed]

Yes, most of the jobs he was going for were PMO related (Head Of/Lead/Manager etc) or Project Manager roles. He has lots of experience in both areas. I can only assume a fair proportion were not real roles.

As a generalist PM, I’m quite surprised to hear about your friend’s experience with looking for PM roles, at least based on when I was last in the market (last summer), and the superficial view of what I’m seeing since then on the job portals.

One that he could find more than 1-2 contract roles to apply for on a daily basis and two that he couldn’t find a suitable role for many months. Perhaps he’s been quite discerning or is locationally restricted?

The pay on offer isn’t anything to shout about but there are a decent number of inside tech-ish/generalist PM roles out there paying £500+ imho. All the inside PM roles I’ve landed in the past few years have been through applying on LI, PSR, Reed and following up with a short note on LI. I only get the odd contact from recruiters on LI, it’s almost always for a perm role.

[PerfectStorm]

Frustrating, if you don't have it, is the number of roles requiring DV clearance. That is, requiring you to already have DV clearance. Creates a chicken-and-egg situation, and a two tier market IMO. Notwithstanding, if vetted, I would probably pass SC/DV.

This preponderance of DV roles is probably just a perception, affecting only the bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings which compose the present job market. But it's still slightly annoying to see, today, my perfect contract, 10 miles away, requiring, of course, pre-existing DV.

Jim

They really make work for themselves by making such roles Inside IR35 at tuppence ha'penny per day, with a 9 month wait for a start date... then wonder why they can't hire anyone

[dsc]

Frustrating, if you don't have it, is the number of roles requiring DV clearance. That is, requiring you to already have DV clearance. Creates a chicken-and-egg situation, and a two tier market IMO. Notwithstanding, if vetted, I would probably pass SC/DV.

This preponderance of DV roles is probably just a perception, affecting only the bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings which compose the present job market. But it's still slightly annoying to see, today, my perfect contract, 10 miles away, requiring, of course, pre-existing DV.

Jim

There's no guarantee you'd get any of those even if you have DV, the market is so weird now, that perfect matches mean jack tulip. Also the amount of people applying means you'd probably get severely undercut by those more desperate than you.

[unixman]

Frustrating, if you don't have it, is the number of roles requiring DV clearance. That is, requiring you to already have DV clearance. Creates a chicken-and-egg situation, and a two tier market IMO. Notwithstanding, if vetted, I would probably pass SC/DV.

This preponderance of DV roles is probably just a perception, affecting only the bottom-of-the-barrel scrapings which compose the present job market. But it's still slightly annoying to see, today, my perfect contract, 10 miles away, requiring, of course, pre-existing DV.

Jim

[edison]

The FTSE 100 has been tulip since year 2000.

The FTSE 250 had been doing really well, killing the FTSE 100, both were around 6000 points in year 2000, but the FTSE 250 reached almost 25,000 while the FTSE 100 only reached 7000 by mid 2021.

That ended in late 2021 when the BOE raised rates. Then the FTSE 250 turned tulipe too , along with the contractor market, while the FTSE 100 has rallied to new highs.

But historically all contractor market slumps have been correlated with the FTSE 250 slumps, and this one is no different, i posted this chart of the FTSE 250 nine months ago, so its a little bit out of date on the right hand side, the 250 has rallied a bit since.

I know you are a keen advocate for the FTSE250 / contractor market correlation but have you seen the constituents and weighting of the index these days?

Financials (mostly investment trusts) 24 %
FMCG 13%
Consumer discretionary 12%
Industrials 12%
Energy 12%
Heath 12%

And way down in last place, technology at a pathetic 1%.

The FTSE100 is just as bad if not worse.

Where is all the economic growth going to come from?

I can see the contractor market finally improving in 2025 after the election and fingers crossed, interest rates come down a percentage point or two.

But I really worry about prospects for anything other than anaemic growth for years to come.