Guide to the latest IT Contractor Rates

Although many recent IT contract market reports show that contract workers - particularly in IT and engineering - have been weathering the economic storm fairly successfully, average rates quoted within online job ads appear to have eased over the past 12 months.

According to data published by IT Jobs Watch, a leading source for real-time online rate data, the average daily rates for almost all major IT contracting skills are lower than they were at the same time in 2011.

The site collects rate data from thousands of job ads posted to the main recruitment sites each day. Although the results may not be scientific, given that job ad data is not always posted in a standard way, they do provide a useful insight into the state of the contracting market.

Looking at generic job titles, for example, nearly 22% of all contract ads are for 'developers'. The average daily rate is down 6.25% since the same period last year at £375 per day. Similarly, for 'analysts' (which make up nearly 21% of all ads), the average daily rate is down almost 8%.

If you filter these results just for contract postings in London, the drop in rates is even more marked - with both developer and analyst roles down 15% over the past 12 months to £425 per day in both cases.

Developer rates in the City of London were down over 18% over the past quarter, compared to the same quarter in 2011.

Clearly, cost cutting in the capital, in particular, has had a significant impact on the nationwide averages.

It is not hard to see why rate cuts in the capital have a disproportionate effect on UK averages; according to jobsadwatch.co.uk, which provides quarterly surveys of the IT jobs market, 83.5% of all contract roles are in the South of the country - and over half of these are based in London.

You can search the database at IT Jobs Watch