Reply to: State of the Market

[squarepeg]

I was on the bench for 18 months over the last 12 years. Unfortunately, 15 months of those were over the last four years with the Winter of 2022-23 being the worst.

[SchumiStars]

1.* 12mths (COVID), 1* 12mths (ongoing) on the bench. Prior to that, had a few 3mths on the bench.

This has been the longest one to date. Learning to suffer is part of the game.

[pjt]

In the past I've been benched for 6 months plus there have posters who have sailed right through it never missing a beat/invoice.

A few months/years later it is vice-versa.

Contracting, it's a funny old game.

qh

I can testify to that! 16 years sailed through contacting with 0 days on the bench. Then start of this year nothing for 5 months not even much in the way of possible roles. If I'm honest I think a good bit of luck and being in the right place at the right time is part of the key to getting roles.

[quackhandle]

In the past I've been benched for 6 months plus there have posters who have sailed right through it never missing a beat/invoice.

A few months/years later it is vice-versa.

Contracting, it's a funny old game.

qh

[SussexSeagull]

Got extended into next year, so hoping iv'e worked through the worst of it and it picks up in 2025

That might very well be the case although who knows anymore?

[edison]

In this situation its often that the existing permie team are on tulipe salaries.

So they cant offer higher rates to new hires.

This is one of the main reasons why salaries are often omitted from job ads along with the company doesn't want some of the team to realise they are being paid significantly less than the others.

[gables]

I've been extended 1 year to end of November 2025 (in a bank inside IR35) - hopefully I've not jinxed it.

[pjt]

Got extended into next year, so hoping iv'e worked through the worst of it and it picks up in 2025

I've just bagged an extension till January... Not bad project and Outside IR35. Was meant to be a 1 month role but by January that will make 8 months with the talk of further work on other projects in the pipeline. My year started bad with a 5 month lull but seems to be picking up again now.

[Unix]

Got extended into next year, so hoping iv'e worked through the worst of it and it picks up in 2025

[simes]

Interesting. Cheers.

I must admit, I only look at Jobserve numbers for my particular search. If I am right about Jobserve being primarily an IT board, then even they must be hurting as, for my search 'project, programme', they now seem to be advertising roles to include Housing Project Workers. But either way, the daily number of adverts for that search has gone down from around 200 to 20... including the above Housing roles!

Still, everything will be better after the Xmas break.

[Fraidycat]

Really? But really really?

I feel this is just agent speak; seller optimism with zero empirical knowledge. "We will see movement after the election, budget, Easter break, Christmas holiday, this that and the random other." No.

The US election wont have as big an effect as any interest rate cut by the Fed on the day after, the US Fed meets on Nov 6th.

The UK General election was July 4th. After that election Jobserve was stagnant at around 20K jobs until about the 20th of August when the number of jobs on JobServe jumped from 20,000 to 40,000, this left me scratching my head as we don't normally see a bounce in jobs in the holiday month of August?

But then i realised it was the BOE in cut in the first week of August that caused that jump in Financial Service/Banking Tech jobs, which are the big sector on Jobserve.

If the BOE can somehow cut rates to below 4% over the next year, i expect the number of roles on Jobserve to double again from 40,000 to 80,000.

[simes]

This is for the record. We will [see] the direction after the USA election by this time next week.

Really? But really really?

I feel this is just agent speak; seller optimism with zero empirical knowledge. "We will see movement after the election, budget, Easter break, Christmas holiday, this that and the random other." No.

I have never seen obvious positive movement after any of these typical 'ideas'. Movement has always been part of the cyclical economical ebb and flow that appears irrespective of any of the above. And/but, to counter that, with the constant changes being applied by the Govt and HMRC to how we do what we do, I cannot see any recruiter having the confidence to deal with us to manifest any grander upswing in movement...for a considerable length of time.

(Clearly, one can see how utterly redundant I have been to the economy over the past year-plus. /rant. But I do wish the best of luck to all those out there that Believe.)

[Bluenose]

I have had a few phone calls and have an interview next week. Are things thawing out a bit?

Yes. And the U.S economic juggernaught keeps steaming along.

As per the other thread about East Coast U.S and remote roles, I keep being pinged about remote work there but the contract rates are about the same.

Permie rates though, you can double your salary if you move but if you dont move you can take a role paying much more than working for a UK based firm.

[squarepeg]

Suddenly got a few calls out of the blue from agents, two with specific opportunities, one contract, one fractional. Unfortunately timing was bad as I'm in a gig but will be looking again come the new year. But hopefully it shows the market not's completely dead.

Current client has been looking almost nine months to find a permie to fill my role but had no success.

They've asked if I'd be interested in going perm but the salary is only just over half of the jobs I was doing a few years back

Similar experience over the last two weeks. I interviewed with three potential clients for time-sensitive projects they cannot find permies for. Looks like a handful of outside IR35 roles have been released. I had to tell two recruiters offering inside roles that I'm no longer interested after the Budget.

[SussexSeagull]

Sounds like a dead cat bounce ahead of things packing up for Christmas in a couple of weeks!