54% of senior IT decision makers use IT staffing specialists when it comes to hiring new employees, according to IT recruiter Modis International.

The IT recruiter’s research survey also found that 13% of respondents rely on referral schemes, whilst 7% prefer to recruit via company websites. Surprisingly, only 5% prefer to recruit through social media.

The MD of Modis International, Jim Albert, said it certainly was surprising that so few companies relied on social media especially as IT recruitment and social media seem destined to be close allies. However, he went on to point out that social media is put to best use as part of a multi-media, wide recruitment drive.

He also thinks time constraints could be a factor and so IT decision makers should work alongside HR teams when it comes to social media. Posting a status update on LinkedIn or Twitter to say a company is recruiting is a simple but cost-effective way of getting social media traffic to the recruitment platform.

Meanwhile, the global service revenue from IT services increased by 3.1% to £480bn during 2010, according to a study by IT analyst Gartner.

Software support recorded the highest growth last year at 6.6% but hardware support and process management both grew by around 1% less than had been anticipated.

IBM is still the market leader in IT services, generating $56.4bn, a year on year increase of 2.6%. HP stayed in the number two spot, followed by Fujitsu, Accenture and CSC.

The global IT services market is very competitive and no single vendor held more a 7% share of the market last year.

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There is a mixture of cautious optimism and trepidation amongst freelancers as we start the countdown to 2011. We still have to see the full impact of the government’s CSR and a lot of umbrella company contractors are feeling anxious about their future prospects.

Prime Sourcing, the IT recruitment specialists, has suggested that some organisations will reduce the amount of contractors they use next year. However, there will be plenty of opportunities for IT contractors in areas such as consultancy, banking and systems software suppliers.

Jeff Brooks, the chairman of Prime Sourcing, said that as well as London and the south east, areas such as Birmingham and Manchester should also have good opportunities next year.

Outsource UK says prospects look to be steady rather than spectacular for contractors in the coming year. The IT recruitment firm is seeing continued demand for people with business-technical skills in distribution, financial services and retail.

IT professionals working in the retail sector have been enjoying increased demand for their services over the past six months. Retailers have been investing in core e-commerce platforms or replacing their existing ones and upgrading their supply chain and core merchandising systems. Within the next 12 months, almost 20% of retailers will be either replacing, or implementing for the first time, e-commerce platforms, according to Martec. And there is now a shortage of candidates with the key skills required by retail organisations.

Meanwhile, IT recruiter, Harvey Nash, recorded a gross profit increase of 24% for its third quarter ending 25th November. After a strong first half of the year, the company is now optimistic that its full-year trading results will be at the top end of market estimates.

A statement released to coincide with the Q3 results said that the company was performing well in the UK market and the recovery in Europe was picking up speed.

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A new report from Numara Software could interest umbrella company IT contractors. It suggests that IT budgets in the UK suffered more than in some other European countries.

42% of IT managers reported that their budgets have been cut as a result of the downturn, compared to 28% in France and 33% in Germany. And 55% said that new projects were being delayed through lack of investment.

However, 60% of respondents believe that companies will start to increase IT investment this year and a further 29% think budgets will be increased in 2011, an increase which should benefit freelancers.

Reducing spend on IT can have devastating effects on a company. Once IT infrastructures become overburdened they are unable to effectively respond to the needs of a business. Senior IT professionals are now fighting back against cuts and a third of those surveyed said they will continue asking the board for funding.

One problem shared by 70% of businesses is their inability to keep track of their IT assets. Tracking is both time consuming and labour intensive and IT managers felt it was important to have flexible asset tracking systems in place.

Despite cuts in funding, Concept IT, a specialist recruiter, reported an increased turnover for last year. Chris Short, the organisation’s MD, said he was pleased to see some return to normality last month when the company achieved the highest number of permanent sales in almost two years. However, he is still slightly cautious and will feel more confident if this trend continues for the rest of the year.

The CBI recently forecast that IT investment will remain flat this year.

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