IT Contractors more in demand than ever before
January 27, 2012 
1 Comment
In a recent survey by www.jobsadwatch.co.uk, figures revealed that the need for IT contractors has risen by more than a quarter in only a year, with temporary IT workers now taking a lead over their permanent counterparts.
While this is good news for IT contractors it does actually spell bad news for the organisations they are being called to work for as a spike in the hiring of temporary workers means a drop in the amount of permanent jobs available and this indicates a drop in the finance available to these companies.
With major organisations having to face cost cuts in all areas one of the first and simplest moves to make is to cut full time permanent positions and bring in temporary workers to fill in for projects that urgently need them. Someone who is on the full time staff gets paid even when there is nothing particularly that they need to be doing, whilst contractors can be brought in for short spaces of time and only paid for the work that they do, and the hours they command.
Another reason to bring in contractors rather than permanent staff is that after a certain amount of time working with a company, an employee is expected to get a salary raise, and they also have certain rights that contract workers do not (such as holiday pay, overtime and so on) meaning they end up costing the company a fair amount more than a contract worker only brought in for a short space of time.
As the economy continues to suffer and major organisations face budget restrictions daily, the best course of action for them is the keep members of permanent staff to a minimum whilst creating a larger pool of temporary jobs that can be filled as and when necessary.
While this may be bad news for both the economy and organisations alike, it is great news for IT contractors who are finding it easier than ever to find constant work in a range of different companies. In fact, the time seems right at the moment for those in permanent roles which are looking to be cut to think about moving into contracting to ensure more stability in their work and financial situation. In fact, a growing number of permanent IT workers are beginning to look at contracting as not only a way to ensure more work, but as a lifestyle that affords them far more flexibility and a greater work life balance also.
The above comment is funny to me. Three years ago doing really good for the employer, they unexpecedly terminated my contract because they have a policy of not employing contractors (no matter how good they are) more than 50 weeks.
Since then recession, recession and as I look on the job boars, appy for advertised jobs and contact agencies, jobs iin 2nd line support carry on being sparse and picky employers.
Morever having done the first ever corporate Vista rollout in the UK, Vista as we all know, turned to be a flop. Windows started appearing 2 years ago. Scanning job adverts, no adverts for windows 7 rollouts. Now suddenly quite a few demanding a number of Window rollouts having already been done in order to do this windows 7 rollouts. And so what that I had done a Vista rollout. Transferable skills? No total infleility of British employers.