IT Contract Jobs Continue to Rise

The IT jobs market is continuing to show tentative signs of recovery, with contract IT vacancies rising steadily for the second successive quarter.

Statistics from the CWJobs UK Quarterly Regional IT Skills Index show that the number of contract IT vacancies advertised between April and June 2003 climbed by nearly 7% compared to Q1 2003.

However, the IT jobs market as a whole saw a slight downturn due to a 4% fall in permanent positions advertised.
-Inner London sees rises in both permanent (17%) and contract (46%) positions but permanent vacancies fall throughout all other regions
-Southern England contract vacancies rise by 9%
-Outer London IT vacancies fall by 3% for permanent staff and 2%for contract
-West and Wales see falls in both permanent (12%) and contract (1%) jobs
-North West contract vacancies have grown 35% since Q2 2002
-West Midlands see greatest fall in permanent jobs (14%)
-SQL, Unix & C are the most sought after IT skills for permanent staff
-SQL, Oracle and Unix top the list of skills demanded for contactors

There was welcome news for jobseekers in Inner London. This region experienced the strongest growth in Q2 2003 with considerable rises in both permanent (17%) and contract (46%) vacancies advertised. In Q1 2003 jobs were still falling in Inner London when all other regions saw an upturn.

Inner London was the only region to receive any positive news with regard to permanent IT jobs, as the rest of the country returned to a situation with declining numbers of permanent vacancies. The West Midlands suffered the worst fall of 14%, and permanent vacancies in the West of England and Wales fell by 12%.

SQL, Unix and C remain the most sought after skills for permanent IT professionals with SQL, Oracle and Unix topping the list of skills demand for contractors.

Commenting on the findings, Shobhan Gajjar, Website Director at CWJobs said:

ìUK companies are gaining sufficient confidence in the economy to invest in IT projects again. This is supported by the definite increase in demand for IT contractors from our customers across the country, and our job vacancy statistics for the last two quarters. Demand is especially strong for high-end project managers and business analysts in the NHS and local authorities. As always, the permanent picture is more mixed but taken overall the figures allow room for cautious optimism.î