Number of IT contract roles rebounds, rates on the rise

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Number of IT contract roles rebounds, rates on the rise

Posted Jul 20, 2010

The latest statistics published by Salary Services suggest that after 2 dreadful years, the contract market is now rebounding.

At the start of 2008, there were just over 40,000 advertised contract positions. The number has more than halved to around 18,000 now. However, 2010 has seen a 11% quarter on quarter increase in contract positions, with the total number up by 22.1% since the end of last year.

Contract rates have also started to rise again - up 3.2% on 2009, and up 2.1% quarter on quarter.

The top ten contract skills in demand remain unchanged - SQL leads the pack, followed by C, Java, C#, Oracle and .Net.

In terms of industry breakdown, 43.5% of contract roles are in the software sector, with finance making up 34.6% or advertised jobs. All sectors are experiencing a revival in demand for contractors, except (unsurprisingly) the public sector.

Regionally, pretty much all the recent growth has taken place in the South of the UK - just over 80% of contract vacancies are in the South. The number of advertised roles are up 7.1% in the North and by 9.4% in the South.

You can read how the various industry sectors are faring in 2010 in the JobsAdsWatch summary for July 2010 here.

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