The demand for both permanent and contract IT workers
has increased outside London and the South East, despite a
nationwide drop in the number of IT vacancies, according to
recruiters.
The latest SSL/Computer Weekly Survey of Appointments Data and
Trends found that the number of vacancies advertised for IT
contractors fell by 12.7% between the first and second quarters of
this year (Computer Weekly, 1 August).
The drop coincides with the completion of several major projects
in the City, including Voca’s new payments system and
Sarbanes-Oxley compliance projects.
However, aerospace companies in the South West, such as Honeywell
and Rolls-Royce, are using greater numbers of skilled people to
work on their products than they did a year ago.
The market for jobs and contracts in the North West has grown,
even though one of the biggest projects in the region – a data
migration at Littlewoods – has finished.
The region’s largest users of IT, such as services company EDS,
which runs its contract for the Department for Work and Pensions
from a centre outside Blackpool, as well as Unilever, have also
increased the number of IT professionals that they use over the
past year.
“Contractors now have a lot more choice [in the North West] than
they did have. We are taking people out of roles to put them into
new ones,” said Andy Gardner, contracts business manager at Reed
Personnel Services in Manchester.
Gardner said organisations were waiting longer for new
contractors to start work than they had done in the past.
Public sector projects, such as the introduction of self-service
portals at several Greater Manchester councils, have also increased
demand.
The region’s biggest companies have made SAP skills the most
highly remunerated. Gardner said, “We could do with more SAP
candidates. A lot of them are contracting at £400 a day, with
functional consultants earning up to £700 a day.”
In the South West of England, aerospace and defence companies want
different skills.
People with software engineering, radio frequency, C++, Unified
Modelling Language and integrated logistic support skills are all
in demand, according to recruitment firms.
Martin O’Boyle, permanent division manager at Capital
International HR Solutions, said, “We have huge demand for people
[in the South West], but a lot of clients are struggling to get the
level of skill they require in a permanent capacity so they are
increasingly going for contractors.”
Vote for your IT greats
Who have been the most influential people in IT in the past 40
years? The greatest organisations? The best hardware and software
technologies? As part of Computer Weekly’s 40th anniversary
celebrations, we are asking our readers who and what has really
made a difference?
Vote now at:
www.computerweekly.com/ITgreats
Please visit our partner,
totaljobs.com for
permanent and contract IT graduate jobs