System developers in highest demand

System developers in contract positions are currently
the most sought after IT contractors in the UK according to statistics from the CWJobs UK Quarterly IT Skills Index. There were over 3,000 vacancies advertised for system developer contractors in both Q1 and Q2 of this
year -accounting for approximately 25% of the total number of contract vacancies advertised. Across all IT disciplines the number of contract vacancies advertised between April and June 2003 climbed by nearly 9%
compared to Q1 2003.

Test analysts and projects managers were the next most demanded contract disciplines each accounting for 6% of all jobs advertised in the last quarter. Both jobs are seeing a growth in demand as well, with 18% more test analysts jobs advertised and 30% more project managers demanded in Q2
2003 compared to Q1 2003.

Demand by sector
The strongest industry sectors for contract IT positions from April to June 2003 were in the media industry, finance and public sector each showing growth in demand for contract positions of 35%, 30% and 27% respectively
since Q1 2003 Vacancies advertised by software houses accounted for 42% of all contract jobs, followed by finance organisations whose adverts accounted for 26% of
all IT contract vacancies in Q2 2003 The number of contract positions fell by over 10% from Q1 to Q2 2003 in
the manufacturing and retail sectors

Skills growth
The top five contract skills demanded in Q2 2003 were SQL, Oracle, Unix, Windows NT and MS Office
There were also a number of the top 50 skills which showed significant growth in demand between Q1 and Q2 2003
Demand for C# contractors rocketed by 85%, advertisements for contractors with PERL and Sybase skills increased by 73% and CRM, PRINCE and FOCUS contract jobs increased by 69%, 65% and 62% respectively


Average salaries
The highest average salary advertised in Q2 2003 was 50 per hour for contractors with MS Office skills in the finance sector and also for SAS skills in the manufacturing industry
Average salaries for system developers did not fall below 30 per hour in any industry for any IT skill

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

UK 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.