Contractors working in HR and IT could see a growth in opportunities this year.

Adecco recently said that we can expect to see gradual jobs growth this year, led by the HR and IT sectors. The Olympics will also provide a welcome boost to the market.

The recruiter’s Job Watch survey showed that hiring slowed down considerably towards the end of last year. Despite the festive season, temporary recruitment in the retail sector actually declined, but permanent hiring increased. The survey also showed that the HR and IT sectors demonstrated tentative growth in the last couple of months of 2011.

Adecco’s MD, Steven Kirkpatrick, said jobs still exist and jobseekers shouldn’t give up. It is important for them to boost their chances by considering all the options, successfully marketing their skills and searching for opportunities.

The Olympic and Paralympic Games will create ten of thousands of opportunities, which will give jobseekers the opportunity to apply for a position outwith their usual sector and help them gain new skills and valuable experience.

SMEs also need to ready themselves for the possible disruption caused by the Games. BT recently surveyed 600 SMEs and discovered that 30% have not yet thought about disruption to the supply chain process during the Games, nor have they considered staffing levels.

Even SMEs who are not directly affected could have customers or suppliers in London who will be impacted by the Games. Furthermore, more than 33% of businesses think they might have staffing problems when employees are either unable to get to work, or want time off during the Olympics.

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There was less demand for umbrella company contractors with IT skills last month than at any other time during 2011, according to the latest Report on Jobs from the REC.

It would seem that the November improvement was nothing more than a blip as demand for temporary IT workers registered a month-on-month decrease from 52.8 to 51.4. In December 2010, demand for IT contractors stood at 57.0.

October had been the previous low point for IT contractors. In the month when AWR came into being, the REC’s index registered 52.1.

The REC Index recorded a decrease in temporary roles in IT, engineering and accounting and financial services and believes this gives a clear indication that companies in the UK are too nervous to commit to even short term hiring.

Bernard Brown, a partner at KPMG, the firm that co-authors the report, said the continuing uncertainty in the Eurozone is to blame for this new lack of business confidence. All we seem to hear is that 2012 will be another tough year.

Despite the decrease in opportunities, REC agents said they struggled to find temporary candidates with skills in Citrix, Datastage, .Net, Oracle and Firewall technologies last month. On the permanent side, recruiters were crying out for people with digital marketing, IT security and web architecture skills, as well as candidates to fill .Net and enterprise software positions.

Recruiters however remain optimistic with many reporting that 2012 has started off on a positive note with clients releasing opportunities after the end of the holiday season.

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Umbrella contractors may be interested to learn that the Reed Job Index ended 2011 with 17% more job vacancies than the year before.

However, the Job Index ended the year on 121 after falling significantly in December. In November the Index registered 133, a slight increase on the previous month’s 129.

Not surprisingly in light of the government’s spending cuts, the public sector registered the least opportunities. The Index dropped to 36 in December, down from 42 in the comparable month of 2010.

Vacancies in hospitality and catering registered a month-on-month increase of 9 points, whilst opportunities in purchasing and safety & security both rose by 1 point. The engineering sector registered the most significant year-on-year increase – up by 64 points. IT and telecoms came in second with a rise of 50. The biggest losers were banking at -41 and education at -10.

The MD of reed.co.uk, Martin Warnes, said the results are particularly striking when you consider the economic turmoil of recent months. Recruitment activity traditionally drops off in December but it is significant that the number of available opportunities still managed to end the year 17% higher than in 2010.

He went on to point out that skilled technical staff in sectors such as engineering have been much in demand, as have those with skills in IT and telecommunications. IT contractors may be able to take solace from these figures and look forward to a bright future in 2012.

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Technology is taking over our lives and 2012 is set to be no different. IT contractors might be interested to hear some of the technology predictions for the year ahead.

Mobile shopping is set to become big business. The Centre for Retail Research has predicted that by 2015, 25% of all online purchases will be made via mobile phone. eBay subsidiary PayPal’s mobile application was used by three times as many people in the US on Cyber Monday this year than last. One person even used their mobile to buy a £70,000 Ferrari from the Internet auction site. IT contractors with skills in mobile retail could find themselves in for a bumper year as more and more companies jump on the online trading bandwagon!

After a slow start, mobile wallets are now becoming a trusted payment method. Using your phone rather than a debit card to pay for purchases or comparing prices by scanning barcodes will soon become mainstream activities as mobile networks step up the battle for new customers.

Google Wallet opened to the American public last summer and the UK will be the first European country to see it later this year.

In third world countries, migrant workers use their mobile phone as a bank account. Currently around $12 billion is sent home by mobile phone money transfer and that is expected to reach $55 billion by 2016.

This year will also see the launch of Apple TV. Its design has been kept closely under wraps but some experts predict it will recognise both voice and hand gestures.

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The festive season can be a quiet time for many umbrella company contractors; companies close down for a long break, and in the case of IT contractors, most of the major banks have told them to take a mandatory two-week break.

What are you going to do with this long period away from work? Once the Christmas celebrations have ended, we’ve got a few spare days before thoughts turn to celebrating the arrival of the New Year.

Why not put some of the time to good use and review your skills and rehash your CV? The business world is constantly changing and the skills that were in high demand last year could well become the dinosaurs of 2012.

Employers tend to skin through CVs. In fact the average employer only spends 30 seconds reading a document it may have taken hours to compile. In fact, many large organisations have a scanning tool for CVs. If the skills they’re looking for don’t show up, all your hard work will end up filed under ‘B’ for bin.

So, at the same time as rewriting your CV, you may want to think about upgrading some of your skills. You can often get a large discount if you book a place on a training course at the last minute.

2012 is the Chinese year of the Dragon. The dragon signifies success and happiness, something we probably all wish for. According to Chinese astrology, people born in the Year of the Dragon are innovative and enterprising. In fact, the ideal characteristics for a successful contractor!

Put your enterprising brain to work over the festive break and hopefully a successful year will follow.

A very Merry Christmas to all contractors!

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Never mind the year of the dragon, 2012 will be the year of the cloud for IT contractors.

A recent survey of British IT bosses suggests that business practices will embrace the cloud in 2012 and IT workers will need to adapt their skill-sets to suit.

250 UK IT decision makers took part in the Modis International research and more than 33% of them said the role of IT professionals has evolved this year and will continue to change in 2012.

The tech recruiter pointed out that a lot of decision makers now expect IT to go through a prolonged period of change, as companies seek to capitalise on emerging technologies. As well as exploiting strategy and technology, companies can make substantial cost savings by utilising cloud services.

One professional services IT head said IT is now about managing resources better, containing costs and doing as much as possible online, and the cloud is proving to be the cheapest solution. However, a lot of companies have been holding back due to issues over data security and hacking.

Jim Albert, the managing director of Modis, said cloud computing had been expected to flourish this year but it has taken longer than anticipated to integrate the technology into existing business systems. As a result, the major IT innovators next year will be the computer professionals who can effectively utilise and implement cloud technology.

He went on to say that IT professionals are at the forefront when it comes to technological changes and are best placed to meet the challenges. As the cloud continues to evolve, demand for contractors with the requisite skills will increase.

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Freelancers in the public sector have had a roller coaster year so far and they will probably be relieved to learn that demand for IT contractors in the sector rose sharply in September.

Computer People recently released its latest figures showing that roles for IT contractors in the public sector increased by 4.3% in September; a reflection that critical projects are still going ahead despite the spending cuts.

The agency commented that although times are hard in the public sector, managers are more likely to use contractors because they can attribute the costs to project budgets, rather than fixed costs.

Sid Barnes, one of Computer People’s directors, said the permanent market has fared worse than the contract one over the past half-year and this could mean contractors are getting the work that would normally have gone to permanent employees.

An increasing number of public sector projects were re-instated and new ones approved. Hiring managers also received new budgets and were keen to snap up quality contractors. The demand for C #, .Net and Oracle contractors has been steadily increasing and although database developers saw rates decrease slightly in September, it is thought there is still money in the pot.

The agency also believes demand for IT contractors will increase further in the first quarter of next year as managers try to spend any left over budget before the year-end.

However, what will that mean when it comes to the second quarter? Barnes believes that spending will reflect both budget levels and managers’ confidence levels in the IT community as a whole.

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IT contractors with mainframe experience could be interested to learn that a lot of CIOs are worried about a shortage of talent in the future.

Compuware surveyed 520 chief information officers and 71% of them said they expect there to be a skills shortage relating to running their company’s mainframe. The respondents warned that this shortage could potentially damage their entire business.

The knock-on affects of a skills shortage could lead to an increased application risk, projects overrunning and reduced productivity.

Compuware’s European mainframe director, Neil Richards, said that all CIOs with responsibility for mainframe business will encounter some sort of problems in the future. Companies could have several experts who know an application inside out but what happens if they all retire within the next few years? That has to be seen as a huge risk to the business.

He went on to say that many firms are unaware of the dangers they face. The majority of mainframe applications were built in the 1960s and 70s. Over the years, they’ve been extended and are now complicated and hard to understand. Employers could find it extremely difficult to replace the skills and experience of the current staff.

Mr Richards explained that there is a huge difference between knowledge of mainframes and knowledge of applications. Mainframe experts understand the business logic of applications and how the whole system fits together. That knowledge is irreplaceable and companies should be starting to come up with a back-up plan in case their experts retire or leave for pastures new.

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IT umbrella company contractors working in the finance sector must be wondering what’s going to happen next.

In recent weeks, the major banks have been cutting rates for their IT contractors by an average 10%. A lot of contractors have also been given a mandatory two-week holiday over the Christmas and New Year period.

During the summer, finance sector contractors were full of confidence in their prospects for the coming year. A survey by Giant discovered that 37.2% of them were prioritising higher pay over long-term contracts.

However, the financial services sector has been rationalising and as often happens in these situations, IT budgets get cut and contractors are the first to feel the pinch.

The chief executive of APSCo, Ann Swain, explained that contractors are first in and first out. Unemployment is rising again and employers will generally cut back on their flexible workforce before making permanent workers redundant.

The major City banks do still have some IT projects on the go and there will be opportunities for contractors. However, it will be much harder to secure new contracts. The projects that were put on hold during the credit crisis are now in full swing, but banks are not looking to start new projects at the moment.

IT contractors with a highly specialised skill set should still find themselves in demand, but those with more general skills may find things more difficult. Financial and banking recruiters are still recruiting, but the level of hiring is no longer increasing. It remains to be seen whether this is a blip or a downward trend that is going to continue into next year.

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Suitably qualified IT contractors might benefit from the lack of applicants for mid-level permanent vacancies in the UK’s IT departments.

Despite an increase in the number of full-time IT roles on offer, recruiter IntaPeople says applications in the 3^rd quarter of this year are down 22% on the comparable period in 2010. In Q3 last year, IntaPeople had a pool of 2,874 people chasing a permanent role in IT; now it says it has 2,511 candidates.

One of IntaPeople’s directors, Stephen Riley, said some firms now have to put projects on hold because they can’t find the people they need. There is a lot of top-level talent, but workers in the mid-tier are usually the ones that turn strategy into action.

Riley wants to see the government do more to make sure youngsters understand the benefits of learning IT at school, but says that there is a void that currently needs filling and freelancers are well placed to step in.

He went on to explain that an increasing number of companies are looking to freelancers; especially those based outside major cities.

Meanwhile, ITJobsWatch has reported that daily rates for some IT contractors are decreasing.

The average rate for a developer is down £25 year-on-year to £375. 10% of developers are still getting more than £600 a day, but the same percentage gets less than £250.

Project managers and business analysts receive an average £450 a day, but the top 10% command an impressive daily rate of more than £650.

ITJobsWatch also reports that there is a bigger range in rates than was previously seen. And even though some banks have cut rates by 10%, there are still good rates to be had.

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According to jobadswatch.co.uk, the third quarter of 2011 saw an increase in the number of opportunities for IT umbrella company contractors.

The website’s data shows a 4.7% increase in the number of adverts for freelancers on the main IT and multi-sector UK recruitment sites in Q3. The number of adverts for full-time IT staff also increased, but only by 1%. However, these figures show that IT recruitment has been expanding for the last nine consecutive quarters.

Jobsadwatch expects this upturn will continue, as employers frequently turn to contractors in the first instance when hiring conditions improve.

However, there are regional disparities and IT contractors in the North West actually saw a 13% decrease in the number of job adverts in the third quarter, whilst Inner London registered the most new contracts.

Adverts for contractors with AGILE skills were up by 38%, followed by .Net with a 23% increase. AGILE is very much the new kid in town, but is rapidly gaining in popularity. There has been a 75% increase in demand for permanent staff with this particular IT skill over the past year.

None of the IT skills registered a fall in demand, but candidates hoping to secure a public sector IT contract saw a 40% drop in adverts.

Financial services firms are now looking for more IT contractors than they were this time last year, as are software houses.

The Monster Employment Index also registered a 19% increase in IT recruitment over the past 12 months. Despite this, the IT sector dropped to fifth place in the monster overall rankings. Engineering topped the chart, transport and logistics came in second and maintenance and construction occupied the third and fourth places.

Monster’s Employment Index also showed that in September, six out of the nine regions in the UK saw an annual increase in online job vacancies. Best of all was the South West where opportunities increased by 22%.

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Apparently, umbrella company contractors yearn for stability nearly as much as their permanent counterparts do, according to a survey commissioned by recruitment company Elan.

Stability is a top priority for permanent employees with 83% of them saying it was one of the three most important factors. 67% of IT contractors also listed stability among their top three priorities.

Strangely enough, more permanent staff than contractors said flexible working hours was a priority but an equal number agreed that technical training was important.

Meanwhile, another study, this time by the HR consultancy Reabur, has discovered that a lot of Brits in full-time employment are not happy in their current role.

31% of those questioned said they were unhappy, 12% were impartial and 7% went as far as to admit to hating their present job. However, employers can take a little solace from the fact that 22% of respondents said they loved their job.

More than 25% of those who are unhappy at work said their job was not challenging enough, whilst 12% said their role was too difficult. Just over a third of the respondents said their job was boring.

9% of employees think they’ve hit the jackpot and secured their dream job, while 34% of the ones who haven’t say they’re too lazy to go out and look for it.

Georgina Read, the joint MD of Reabur.com said it was concerning that such a lot of employees are unhappy with their job. Happy workers are always going to perform better than unhappy ones, she explained.

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