Reply to: State of the Market

[SchumiStars]

Had a nice chat with a recruiter this morning. Everyone is in agreement, that this is the worst job market in decades.

Talked to him about why the banks were not hiring and it seems they can avoid hiring contractors (IR35) by just outsourcing the work to consultancies on the same rate but outside IR35.

Makes sense, why would they risk getting fined. Does look like IR35 is one of the big reasons why contracting is a finished market.

[SussexSeagull]

Fair comment. Word of mouth seems the way of it now. I'm not smug with this arrangement, as it pushes out good contractors from finding work. It's as if the impenetrable world of insurance is now across most sectors and recommendations are one of the few ways to get work. I'm not working full time on any single contract and like it this way, but scope creep is happening more often as clients try to get many more hours than they say they are willing to pay for. It's a ruse to exploit desperate contractors. I've managed to stop two clients expecting full time office hours for what certainly is part time 2 days a week project.

You do hear of people who are in a similar position to you and are doing ok or indeed quite well. I agree about word of mouth but it doesn't help if they haven't got any work going.

Problem is if the eco-system of contracting gets dismantled it will reach a point, or indeed might have already, where there is a terminal decline and it can't scale back up if the market improves and can't be a sizeable industry again.

Good luck to you though.

[agentzero]

I am out the game now but looking on here and on LinkedIn I think your experience is fairly atypical of the current contract market.

Fair comment. Word of mouth seems the way of it now. I'm not smug with this arrangement, as it pushes out good contractors from finding work. It's as if the impenetrable world of insurance is now across most sectors and recommendations are one of the few ways to get work. I'm not working full time on any single contract and like it this way, but scope creep is happening more often as clients try to get many more hours than they say they are willing to pay for. It's a ruse to exploit desperate contractors. I've managed to stop two clients expecting full time office hours for what certainly is part time 2 days a week project.

[NotAllThere]

A reminder that this is a "State of the Market" thread and not "The poor state of Oliverson's life".

Market has picked up in the last two months and have been received more calls than I know what to do with.

It's also not "State of the Economy" really! Although the two are obviously related. Anyway, off topic posts removed.

[SussexSeagull]

A reminder that this is a "State of the Market" thread and not "The poor state of Oliverson's life".

Market has picked up in the last two months and have been received more calls than I know what to do with.

I am out the game now but looking on here and on LinkedIn I think your experience is fairly atypical of the current contract market.

[avonleigh]

A reminder that this is a "State of the Market" thread and not "The poor state of Oliverson's life".

Market has picked up in the last two months and have been received more calls than I know what to do with.

Not sure how you can say that, maybe it has for your skillset but the market has not improved at all in general.

[willendure]

A reminder that this is a "State of the Market" thread and not "The poor state of Oliverson's life".

Market has picked up in the last two months and have been received more calls than I know what to do with.

What sort of work do you do? Haven't had a call on the contractor bat phone for quite some time.

[willendure]

Yep, I've come across this. One small business owner undertaking servicing work locally told me that he has sufficient demand to put up prices and accepts that some customers will be lost, but that it doesn't matter.

The cost of servicing and parts is such that I gave up on my approach of getting three year old cars and running to 10 years, and have moved to leasing inclusive of servicing. It works out for me now that my milage is low.

Driving a 2002 Landcruiser 90 series - 240K miles on the clock. Just got its MOT, a perfect clean pass. Virtually no rust. Runs sweet as anything and I do all the servicing and almost all repairs myself. Reckon I will get another 240K miles out of it, so long as I give the engine intake a good clean out and change the injectors reasonably soon. Thats how I do cheap motoring.

[agentzero]

A reminder that this is a "State of the Market" thread and not "The poor state of Oliverson's life".

Market has picked up in the last two months and have been received more calls than I know what to do with.

[krytonsheep]

Instead of doing higher volume at lower prices by employing helpers, he had decided to up his prices and do fewer cars instead.

Had lunch in a fairly popular pub in London last week. Place was practically empty for a Friday, but the price of food was 3x what it would have been a few years ago. I wondered if they were working on that same model, less people, less food, but same income by ramping up the prices.

[agentzero]

Only in your tiny mind and you're looking in the wrong places, though I must confess, the stalker thing I find slightly disturbing! My twitter and Telegraph 'contributions', especially towards the likes of Hunt, Sunak (especially), Johnson, Starmer, you name it, they're getting it with both barrels.

You don't work for the BBC do you? Inferring sexism, racism, etc. Very BBC.

Funny you should mention contracts as I'm mulling over an offer hot off the press. Fully remote, outside IR35. Hopefully my final rounder on Thursday for an even better opportunity will come good and I can then make a decision.

I'm on 3 outside contracts at the moment, so I was purely referring to this website. Well done for revealing you're using the same username on those websites though. It explains a lot of your issues, including your inability to understand why demeaning a woman with a much lower job title, just because she's a woman, isn't acceptable in the modern age.

See a therapist and stop spamming here. Gracias.

[Protagoras]

Instead of doing higher volume at lower prices by employing helpers, he had decided to up his prices and do fewer cars instead.

Yep, I've come across this. One small business owner undertaking servicing work locally told me that he has sufficient demand to put up prices and accepts that some customers will be lost, but that it doesn't matter.

The cost of servicing and parts is such that I gave up on my approach of getting three year old cars and running to 10 years, and have moved to leasing inclusive of servicing. It works out for me now that my milage is low.

[Fraidycat]

Official UK unemployment rate hits 5%.

1000 job losses per day, 30,000 a month.

The rest of the economy is now feeling what we have been feeling for the last 40 months.


I went to get my car serviced recently, was shocked the owner had let go of both his helpers and also upped his prices 50%.

Instead of doing higher volume at lower prices by employing helpers, he had decided to up his prices and do fewer cars instead.

[I just need to test it]

I'm permie on a government project which is resourced such that there's one contractor per program.

Given that development concluded several months ago it seems likely that some of these folks have got fingers in other pies.

[SussexSeagull]

On a less confrontational / defensive note, on speaking to an agent today I was surprised to here that he was rejecting several clients that he knew, don't ask me how, were servicing two to three contracts at a time. Said this practice has kicked in obviously with the WFH, but especially in London-based contractors. Another factor in several on this board being out of work.

They probably put it on LinkedIn or told the agent. Some people are fairly open about it.