IT jobs market begins recovery at last

CWJobs Statistics Show Permanent IT Job Vacancies in the UK Increased by 4% in Q1 2003

The IT jobs market is showing definite signs of recovery, with IT vacancies displaying the first quarter on quarter rise since April 2001. Statistics from the CWJobs UK Quarterly Regional IT Skills Index show that the number of permanent IT vacancies advertised between January and March 2003 climbed by over 4% compared to Q4 2002. This compares to a fall of 38% between Q3 2002 and Q4 2002. The situation for contract IT staff looks even better with a rise in advertised positions of 7% in Q1 2003.

Despite the overall picture in IT vacancies looking a lot healthier, the situation for contract and permanent IT jobseekers varies across the different UK regions:

Southern England sees rises of over 9% in both permanent and contract positions
Both contract and permanent vacancies also increase in Outer London, West & Wales and North East
North West sees the greatest increase (22%) in contract IT jobs advertised since Q4 2002
Permanent IT jobs in the East Midlands show the biggest rise - 13%
No respite for Inner London with permanent and contract jobs continuing to fall
Contract vacancies in Scotland/Northern Ireland escalate by over 20%
SQL, C & Unix are the most sought after IT skills for permanent staff
SQL, Oracle and Windows NT top the list of skills demanded for contactors

The biggest increase in advertised permanent IT positions in Q1 2003 was 13% in the East Midlands. The other regions that saw significant growth in demand for permanent employees were Outer London, Southern England, the North West and North East with rises between 8% and 10%.

The greatest increase in demand for contract IT staff was experienced by the North West with 22% more vacancies advertised in Q1 2003 compared to Q4 2002. Contract vacancies in Scotland/Northern Ireland also escalated dramatically, by over 20%. More modest rises in contract IT jobs were experienced by the North East (13%), Southern England (9%), West & Wales (8.5%) and Outer London (5%).

Unfortunately, the outlook did not look positive for all the UK regions. Inner London is still suffering the downturn with permanent IT vacancies having decreased by more than 18% since the end of 2002. The other regions to see a reduced demand for permanent positions were the West Midlands (-1%) and Scotland/Northern Ireland (-9%). However, these falls are relatively small compared to the UK average decline in vacancies of 38% as seen in the last quarter of 2002.

SQL, C and Unix are still the most sought after skills for permanent IT professionals - these have been the most popular since 2000. SQL, Oracle and Windows NT topped the list of skills demanded for contractors in Q1 2003.

Commenting on the findings, Shobhan Gajjar, Website Director at CWJobs said: With IT job vacancies having fallen quarter on quarter for the last two years it is very encouraging to see these green shoots of recovery in the IT sector. The majority of our customers are expecting to see a recovery of the IT industry as a whole in the final quarter of 2003 and this upturn in recruitment trends reflects UK business' growing confidence in the economy.