Originally posted by Fraidycat
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Reply to: State of the Market
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Previously on "State of the Market"
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Originally posted by SussexSeagull View PostI think contractors current challenges are only a symptom of a wider problem. I know it is unscientific but looking on LinkedIn I am not sure the permanent market is much better and IT recruitment is a blood bath at the moment.
And as others have mentioned, no one gives a tulipe about the specific travails of the contractor job market, not the general public and not the government (any government). In the grand scheme of things, we're a small part of the job market, that's it.
As far as the pure IT sector is concerned, an interest-rate cut or an uptick in the UK economy will not necessarily translate into good times for jobs/contracts in the sector. There's a massive amount of excess supply built up over the past few years, they're not going anywhere yet.
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Originally posted by SchumiStars View PostWell, think I have decided not to bother looking for the time being. It's just bringing down the enthusiasm I once had for software development.
Things are not improving and after 12mths of applying and getting nothing. Probably time to look at other things.
We are nearly at the end of this i think. The dot com crash took down the UK contractor market for about 30months. (Mid 2001 to end of 2003)
We are 26 months into this one, and interest rates cuts are on the way down and in 4 months the next US president will take office. Coinciding with the 30 month mark.
Blue skies ahead.
I would at least continue applying for roles where you are a perfect match based on the spec and your skills.Last edited by Fraidycat; Yesterday, 17:47.
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Well, think I have decided not to bother looking for the time being. It's just bringing down the enthusiasm I once had for software development.
Things are not improving and after 12mths of applying and getting nothing. Probably time to look at other things.
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Originally posted by SussexSeagull View Post
I think contractors current challenges are only a symptom of a wider problem. I know it is unscientific but looking on LinkedIn I am not sure the permanent market is much better and IT recruitment is a blood bath at the moment.
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If anyone here is in FS, Citi is hiring extensively. I get about 2 emails a week from agents for them. Even when it's not mentioned you can tell from the terminology who it is.
They are always hiring, make of that what you will
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Originally posted by dsc View PostThis is why it always makes me laugh when people here say that the gov needs to fix this or that for us to make more money / get jobs etc. As if we are the priority
What I wanted to say is, there is a problem in the UK and it extends to most western countries. That is that the boomers are retiring, shrinking the productivity of the economy, and going from high earners to tight fisted pensioners overnight; that significantly changes how they view their capital. You can see how this played out in Japan already and from that derive a picture of how this will be and is affecting the UK. In many ways it didn't really matter which party we elected at the last election because they all face this issue. Since demographics is "baked in" and cannot be changed, there are no easy solutions. A major difference with Japan is that they don't have immigration like we do. Hence they have found remaining politically unified easier as a population with a more singular ethnicity. The difficulty the UK has is that immigration is a possible solution to demographics through filling in desirable age ranges by recruiting from abroad, but that also increases political division.
So tough choices indeed, and contractors are not a priority. But also we've been hit in the past by tax changes, how much is left to squeeze out of us, or are their more ambitious targets that mean we get overlooked?
Rumours of 45% on all dividends sound a little paranoid.Last edited by willendure; Yesterday, 13:04.
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Originally posted by dsc View Post
This is why it always makes me laugh when people here say that the gov needs to fix this or that for us to make more money / get jobs etc. As if we are the priority
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Originally posted by jamesbrown View Post
[...]but high-earning contractors will be squarely caught up in it and, honestly, it will be very hard, perhaps impossible, for them to not screw it up.
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Originally posted by SchumiStars View PostWas talking to my friend, a small business owner. He was saying that prior to COVID he struggled to find staff but now he has people literally knocking on his door asking for work.
Also told me that the freshies have to also pay some sort of 10-year-visa-plan, which is around £2k per year.
No wonder the govmt love immigration. It literally is cash cow for not offering much more than what is here. Supported by the current infrastructure.
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Originally posted by oliverson View Post
Currently sat on my roof terrace in Southern Spain, contemplating whether i could move here full time. Any tax rise on dividends, no matter how significant, would probably tip the balance. Digital Nomad Visa for me and my US client. 24% flat rate tax. Bye bye broken Britain.
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Was talking to my friend, a small business owner. He was saying that prior to COVID he struggled to find staff but now he has people literally knocking on his door asking for work.
Also told me that the freshies have to also pay some sort of 10-year-visa-plan, which is around £2k per year.
No wonder the govmt love immigration. It literally is cash cow for not offering much more than what is here. Supported by the current infrastructure.
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Originally posted by SussexSeagull View Post
The further problem is contractors aren't really the intended target for employment status reform so will be low down the list of people who consideration will be given to.
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Originally posted by jamesbrown View Post
Sure, it mitigates, but HMRC won't be happy until there is parity or worse, in their view and, since the benefits of "flexibility" afforded by contractors to the wider economy are hard to quantify (but, no doubt, real), ministers - particularly Labour ministers - will tend to listen to HMRC w/r to the "tax gap" and focus on that.
Sorting out employment status is very, very hard - which is why it hasn't been done - and there will most likely be some severe downstream consequences. For example, if they go with strict deeming criteria, like other jurisdictions, you will get most of the downsides w/r to loss of flexibility, while the expected extra tax may be lower than expected if it becomes easier to game the criteria. One of the problems with employment status is that you cannot really address it independently of tax, but they are nevertheless distinct bodies of legislation, presently.
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Originally posted by oliverson View Post
It's not the growth that concerns me, it's the levels of taxation, immigration, criminality, lack of opportunity, social destruction, oh and dividend tax! It's everything really. Not the country I grew up in. This century has proved to be a disaster!
I have anything from now until maybe 25 years left on this planet before I end up in it. What I don't have time for is another decade plus of austerity to 'fix the NHS' (and the rest).
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