Although overall activity in the IT recruitment sector had been increasing for nine consecutive quarters, growth over the last three months slowed to a grim 1%.
Moreover, an increase in outsourcing by both public and private sector organisations as they attempted to cut costs led to both consultancies and software houses being the most active recruiters.
These are key findings of the latest state-of-the-nation study of high tech employment by specialist IT recruitment website CWJobs, which revealed that no less than 64% of all new permanent vacancies were created by IT service provider companies. Demand for contracters among high tech firms also jumped at the highest rates across the industry, leading to a 6% increase in job postings during the third quarter.
Richard Nott, CWJobs’ web site director, said: “This increase in demand is likely to be a result of the higher levels of outsourcing being made by companies in an effort to reduce costs. It will open up a number of opportunities for IT pros who are flexible enough to migrate from in-house to tech companies in response to this trend.”
But the study also warned of further tightening in the public sector IT job market, which has already experienced a 40% drop in available posts year-on-year. The figures stand in sharp contrast to other markets such as retail, which saw a 24% jump in demand for contractors and a 14% rise in the number of permanent jobs.
In terms of skills, SQL, C, C#, .NET and Java are still the most sought-after, although demand for permanent staff with SQL expertise fell by 2% for the first time in three years.
London continued to be the most buoyant centre in terms of job opportunities, with the number of permanent posts increasing by 3% and the level of contract job vacancies rising by 10%. The rest of southern England also experienced a spike in demand, with a 5% increase in contract work and a 2% increase in permanent positions.
