The number of IT vacancies continued to fall last month
as part of a wider trend across the overalljobs market.
October's Report on Jobs from the Recruitment and Employment
Confederation and KPMG signalled a continuation of the rapid
weakening of the
UK labour market.
Permanent and temporary staff appointments fell at survey-record
rates as demand for staff contracted sharply. Wages and salaries
declined for the first time in over five years, pressured by
rapidly rising levels of candidate availability.
Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment
Confederation (REC), said, "These are the worst figures we have
seen since the report began in 1997, with both vacancies and the
number of job placements falling at an increasing rate."
The survey is based on data provided by recruitment
consultancies.
Although the number of vacancies in IT again declined, the IT
industry was number two behind health when it came to the number of
permanent and temporary jobs available. This position was higher
than a year ago.
Demand for permanent staff fell across all job categories with
the exception of Nursing/Medical/Care during October. The sharpest
rate of decline was in Accounting/Financial staff, reflecting the
ongoing retrenchment in the financial services sector.
Key permanent staff skills in IT still reported to be in short
supply were business analysts, "tech skills", IT security, and
"general IT".
When it came to temp skills in short supply, only IT developers
were in demand.
See also
Special report: Redundancy
Picture supplied byRex Features