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The news marks the first rates cut for contractors in 2002 and the first rates cut to rise above the 10 per cent mark, at 15 per cent.
Mandatory unpaid holidays for contractors also remain in place at CSFB.
Jane Akshar, PCG Chairman and previously a contractor at CSFB, said: "This demonstrates the risks and uncertainties that contractors face and proves the PCG’s assertion that we are not employees. Contractors always bear the brunt of any financial cutback either on their rates or on the availability of work. The current market is extremely poor and I wonder how the Government can continue to maintain that there is a skills shortage that requires filling from the labour market overseas."
Steve Barrie, Chief Analyst at Bloor Research, said: "A quick look around the IT market place indicates that there is a new optimism. It looks as though the gloom created by dot com failures and concerns about the effects of the global war on terrorism have worn off.
"Businesses have resolved to start 2002 with a much more positive outlook and this has been reflected very quickly in the jobs market. Take a quick look at the Jobstats website and you'll see that there has been a steep climb in the number of jobs being advertised. It's too soon to tell whether this is a long-term rise or whether the jobs on offer are real but it is an indicator that the market has possibly bottomed out.
"From the employers' perspective, it may mean the end of the 'buyers market.' IT skills have been relatively cheap and available for quite a while. If that situation changes then actions such as this one by CSFB will not prove too effective. I believe that CSFB will get away with this cut without too many nasty side effects because there is not enough strength in the market to tempt contractors away from the current roles."
CSFB first announced a 10 per cent cut in rates last July. Before the end of the year BT, IBM, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Ericsson, CitiGroup and Hewlett Packard all announced similar cuts.
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Richard Powell, Shout99
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