Guide to the latest IT Contractor Rates

A leading job board expects the IT contract market to remain strong over the next year, as the demand of skilled IT professionals continues to grow, despite fundamental problems with the economy as a whole.

According to recruitment site, The IT Job Board, although clients are being cautious about hiring, many are finding it a real challenge to find genuine IT specialists - which can only be a good thing for contractors.

In fact, the number of contract vacancies on the site is growing as a proportion of overall jobs on offer, and currently account for 26% of all current openings.

Predictions for the contract market in 2012

We asked Pete Healey, director of sales at The IT Job Board what his predictions were for the rest of 2012:

"We are still seeing a general trend of strength in the contractor market vs. permanent. Typically in times of uncertainty businesses do tend more towards the contract route and now is one of those periods.

"Clearly there is a higher cost per hour in going down this route but it gives our customers the flexibility to make quick changes to team sizes if needed.

"We are expecting the contract market to remain relatively strong in 2012, as there is a high demand for skilled ICT professionals but general uncertainty relating to the economy."

Which IT skills are hot?

SQL and SQL Server skills are in highest demand according to the site's Salary Monitor (which was launched late last year), although web-based skills are also in great demand, as Pete Healey explains:

"We are still seeing growth in web based applications such as Java and .NET. This is in line with the movement from physical computing environments to the cloud. SAP roles maintain a high level of demand but one area really increasing is that of Microsoft Dynamics - Microsoft's move in the enterprise space.

"Demand for Project Managers continues to prevail, along with IT Security. As a lot of systems move to web based environments, IT Security becomes more of a concern for administrators and users."