The number of people employed in the IT and telecoms profession has
fallen to its lowest point for more than a year as employers
continue to lay off staff and cut their workforces.
The number of IT and telecoms professionals in work in the UK has
dropped by 62,000 from a peak of 1.149 million at the end of 2001
to less than 1.087 million in the second quarter of this
year.
But despite the tough conditions, there are signs in the latest
E-Skills UK Quarterly Skills Analysis that the slowdown may be
reaching the bottom of the trough.
"The rate of increase of unemployment is slowing down and is in
line with E-Skills UK's expectations. This is a good indicator that
the downturn may be bottoming out. We expect to see signs of
recovery in the first half of 2003," said Terry Watts, chief
executive of E-Skills UK.
Unemployment rates for IT and telecoms professionals across all
industries have increased from 2.5% in mid 2001 to 4.1% at the end
of the last quarter. But this is still below the average of 5.2%
unemployment for all occupations.
The largest falls in employment were seen among telecoms engineers,
down 13% since the first quarter of 2002, and IT strategy and
planning staff, down 8%.
There has been a significant decline in demand for IT staff with
HTTP, Progress and DCom skills, although staff with SQL, C++, Unix,
Windows NT, Java and Visual Basic skills are still popular with
employers.
The number of firms reporting difficulties hiring IT and telecoms
staff has fallen dramatically from 18% in the first quarter of 2001
to just 6% in the second quarter of the year - an indication that
the skills shortages reported in the late 1990s have subsided, at
least temporarily.
IT suppliers have borne the brunt of the downturn. Employment of
all types of staff fell by 49,000 in the second quarter of 2002 to
906,000. This is the third successive quarter of job losses among
IT supplier.
Read Simon Moores'
Thought for the Day on IT job prospects