The last quarter of 2007 produced a frenzy of financial
gloom in the media, following the crises at Northern Rock, Swiss
bank UBS and the consequent decision by the Bank of England to cut
interest rates. British business, however, displayed a far more
robust response, to judge from the cwjobs.co.uk
Survey of Appointments Data and Trends compiled by Salary Services
Ltd (SSL).
Permanent IT jobs advertised on the web shot upwards by a third
relative to the same quarter in the previous year, maintaining the
healthy growth trend that has now lasted for eight consecutive
quarters. The fourth quarter figure was also up on the third
quarter of 2007, when the press first published pictures of queues
at Northern Rock branches and the word "sub-prime" first entered
the nation's consciousness: here the rise was 7%.
The contract jobs market was similarly buoyant at the end of
last year, with jobs up between a quarter and a third on 2006, and
10% up on the third quarter of 2007. So as Harvey Nash Group's
marketing director, Paul Smith, puts it from the recruitment
market's perspective, "The market belies the analysts' and
economists' view of where we are. Everything seems to be pretty
normal."
Taking 2007 as a whole, permanent jobs were up 17% on 2006, and
were higher than in any year since 2001. Contract jobs rose over
the year by around the same amount (15%).
The
finance sector is where one would expect any downturn to show
first, but you have to look hard to find any evidence of
belt-tightening even here. Jobs rose in these companies compared
with 2006 by a little above the average - 36% - in the permanent
market and by exactly the average - 28% - in the contract market.
In both these areas there was a slight decline - 6% and 2%
respectively - from the third quarter, so possibly the first hint
of recession can be discerned here.
Another sign may be that IT jobs in central London were down by
5% on a year ago. This is a noticeable contrast with the third
quarter, where the City registered the biggest year-on-year
rise.
These slight cutbacks pale into insignificance, however, when we
turn to the manufacturing sector, where jobs actually fell by a
much larger margin: 16% from a year ago. They accounted for 4% of
all permanent IT jobs advertised then, and just 2% last time. The
electronics and communications sector, monitored separately by SSL,
is also in a depressed state jobs were fractionally up on a year
ago, but overall they fell from 7% of the market to 5%.
In the contract market, the picture is similar, though the
detail is different here the electronics companies cut back
recruitment by nearly a fifth, and manufacturing companies
registered a small increase.
So in this context, it has to be said that the finance sector is
much more buoyant than general predictions would suggest, and has
shown little reaction so far to the apocalyptic rumblings in the
press.
Geographically, inner London was the only area to show a fall in
jobs advertised relative to a year ago. Conditions in the City were
in marked contrast to the rest of the capital, where jobs rose by
well above the average, and they were also substantially up in the
rest of southern England.
The biggest rise last time came in Scotland and Northern
Ireland, where the jobs on offer nearly doubled. This again
contrasts with the third quarter, where jobs fell relative to 2006
by 10%. While job-seekers in these areas undoubtedly enjoyed a good
fourth quarter, they should not read too much significance into
these fluctuations. The total market is small - around 4% of all UK
IT jobs - and the activities of one or two major employers can have
a disproportionate impact.
Opportunities were also significantly up in the Midlands and the
north of England, which is another change from the third
quarter.
A noticeable feature of the contract market this time has been
an increase in demand for senior staff. Overall senior jobs on
offer rose 33%, and junior jobs were up 26%. Positions on offer for
senior software engineers, database analysts and PC support staff
all doubled, and demand for consultants increased by nearly as
much. This highlights the difficulty employers are finding in
recruiting the senior staff they need, as reported in several
surveys: demand here is much greater than the supply.
Jobs advertised in the printed media continued to decline, and
are now at their lowest level since the SSL survey began 21 years
ago. They are running at a quarter of the level of a year ago, and
now account for less than 1% of all jobs advertised.
The average salary on offer to the IT professional in the fourth
quarter rose by 2.6%, the same as in the second quarter and up from
1.9% a year earlier. It is a significant fall from the 5%
registered in the third quarter, but that was a quite exceptionally
high figure that looks now to have been a statistical glitch.
Having said that, average rates in the contract market rose by 4%
last time, which is also significantly higher than in any other
recent quarter. But according to Smith, "the salary reduction shows
a little bit of caution. People are not paying wild salaries."
A landmark was reached in the fourth quarter when, for the first
time, the average salary for IT directors topped six figures. The
actual figure of £104,707 is 15% up on a year ago. Some
professionals at the bottom of the IT staff pyramid also did well,
with double-digit rises in the average salary on offer to junior
programmers and operators.
The methodology used by SSL in compiling the skills league table
has changed this time, and as a result there are a lot of minor
changes. The skills making up the top 25 are unchanged but there
are many changes of position.
New-wave Microsoft development skills feature prominently, with
C# up to fourth,
.net up to fifth and ASP up to eighth. These were the skills to
show the biggest growth over the year along with SQL Server
(sixth), with demand up 40% or more in each case.
Just outside the top 25, the open source alternative to ASP is
moving up fast. PHP is now 27th, up 10 places from last time.
Open source is continuing to make headway in the Unix market as
well. Linux has risen to its highest ever position for the second
quarter in a row, and now lies 13th. Unix, meanwhile, is one of
just six skills in the top 25 to feature in less advertisements
than a year ago. Only Microsoft Office and UML have fallen faster
this time.
The main alternative to Microsoft-based development remains
Java, with the programming language itself lying in third place,
and Javascript up to 18th, again a new high for the second quarter
in succession. Further down, Ajax is beginning to make an impact it
only entered the SSL table in the third quarter of 2007, but is
already up to 39th. Perhaps surprisingly, it features in five times
as many advertisements as the much more highly publicised newcomer,
Vista, which is down in 82nd place.
About SSL
This article is based on information contained in
cwjobs.co.uk Quarterly Survey of Appointments Data and Trends,
compiled by Salary Services Ltd.
The Survey analyses advertisements for IT professionals on
the web and in the trade press and the quality national dailies and
Sundays. It is primarily intended for recruitment agencies and CIOs
with a substantial recruitment requirement.
The posts advertised are broken down in the Survey into 55
job categories. Within each job category, the Survey provides
details of the number of posts advertised and the average and
median national salaries offered for the last quarter and for each
of the previous four.
The Survey provides further analyses within each job
category by platform type, industry sector and regional location.
It also provides a breakdown for the major job categories of the
technical skills most in demand. In each analysis, it again details
the average salary on offer for each of the past five
quarters.
The price of a single issue of the survey is £250, and for
an annual subscription is £350. This covers four issues, and
includes a free copy of a Windows-based software product on CD
which allows selection of combinations of region, industry and
software skills for a specified job type. Readers can order at
www.salaryservices.co.uk.
Read previous SSL Surveys