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How contractor developer skills are faring in the 'downturn'

Published on Apr 23, 2009 | | Contract Rate Checker

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The number of IT contractor jobs advertised has fallen by a shocking 62% over the past few months, according to the latest SSL IT jobs market report.

So, how has the demand for developer skills fared in recent months?

According to the report, the demand for contract developers has dropped for the past six quarters.

Predictably, contract jobs in finance have been the hardest hit - down 32.8% on last quarter.

The fall in demand by software houses, the main employers of development contractors, has not suffered as badly - down 'just' 20.8% from the last quarter of 2008.

Most in-demand developer skills

According to the report, the main skills that are declining in popularity since the end of 2008 are C++ (number of advertised permanent roles down 27.1%), and Oracle (down 26.6%). However, the demand for HTML and Javascript permies has risen significantly.

In the contract market, SQL is the most advertised skill (although the term covers a wide variety of skill areas).

The number of contracts advertised containing 'SQL' is down 34.8% on the last quarter of 2008.

The other skill areas making up the 'top ten' for contractors are: C, Oracle, SQL Server, C#, Java, .NET, SAP and ASP.

Of course, these figures relate to contract roles advertised. Although many roles (particularly in lean times) may not even make it to the press, we believe that this data does provide a good indicator of general market strength in different skill and industry areas.

You can read the full April 2009 rate/salary report here, including a breakdown of contract rate trends by role and region.