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The most recent findings show the largest monthly decline of all of the sectors' staff categories to be within the IT sector. According to the report, IT staff figures are now dropping at the fastest rate since the survey began 4 years ago.
Demand continued to grow for all other categories of staff, but in all cases rates of growth have fallen over the last month and are well down on a year ago. The report allocates this to information gathered from 'consultancies who have reported a fall in demand for both permanent and temporary IT staff during May.'
The strongest fall in demand was seen for computing and IT staff, with demand for permanent IT staff falling for the first time in the survey's four-year history |
Meanwhile, rates of pay for temporary and contract workers have risen again for the twenty-seventh consecutive month. Commenting on how much longer contractors' rates could continue to increase, the report states that 'the pace of growth has weakened sharply in recent months, turning down for the seventh successive month in May to record only a marginal increase on April. The rise was the weakest since March 1999 and contrasts markedly with the strong growth seen as recently as the first quarter.'
The latest report also found that skills shortages have eased again for the second month running- a stark comparison to the situation throughout much of the past 18 months. Measured overall, the report found that the availability of permanent staff deteriorated at the slowest rate for almost two years, whilst the availability of temporary/ contract staff deteriorated at the slowest rate since June 1999.
Skills reported to be in high demand in the IT contracting sector continue to include: Technicians, Java, C++, CRM Programmers and System Testers. In the permanent IT sector key skills reported to be in short supply are listed as being: C++, CNC, Java, Ingress Programmers, Software designers and IT Technicians.
Dave McCormack, Commercial Director at IT recruitment company Certes, said of the reports findings:
"Contrary to the general trends outlined above we are experiencing some signs of a more positive outlook to come. Many clients are talking about new projects and an increased demand over coming months. We believe the best advice we can give is don't panic, sit tight, we do expect improvement soon."
Related stories:
IT staff demand down by 40%
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Richard Powell, Shout99
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