IT contractor rates - average hourly and daily contract rate analysis

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IT contract rates - some of readers' views

Posted Dec 17, 2008

At Contract Eye, we often get emails from contractors who are starting out in the industry, as well as seasoned veterans. In the past month we've received more emails than ever - here are a few.

"I've seen on the site reports of rate cuts. I'm no exception. 2 agencies deal with the contractors on site - both were told to enforce 10% cuts across all the contractors. My agent told me that I either accept the cut or I'm for the chop. Apparently, this is regardless of your position on the project - everyone must comply. Clearly I had no choice to accept the cut - and all but one of us has done so. One guy already has a better offer, but he's always seemed flighty anyway. As for other contract opps - in finance anyway, there aren't any at the moment -whatever anyone says."

"Thanks for the guides on the site. With your economic downturn tips - from personal experience - the number one priority for anyone is to put money aside for a rainy day. Don't invest it in the stockmarket - just save it. I know several people who've had to take out loans to pay their corp tax this year - they can't remortgage to free up funds for obvious reasons."

"You keep on quoting Jobstats on your site with average rates down to £30 per hour. How do you get this dubious figure?"

(The Jobstats site extracts information from contract ads on the major job boards - it might not be an entirely accurate figure, but over time it seems to map a good picture of the health of the contract market overall).

"I've visited your site many times over the last year, but all you post these days is negative sh*te."

(Thanks for the feedback. I think you'll find that we try to report about the contracting market as we find it. Other contracting sites were posting upbeat articles even in the Autumn, but we've always been cautious - and were right to be so).

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