Female umbrella contractors might be interested to learn that Scottish recruiters believe the shortage of women working in the engineering, maths, science and technology sectors could be detrimental to the country’s economy.

Last week the Institution of Engineering and Technology said the proportion of women working in science related jobs is still the same as it was in 2008.

Colin Woodward, the director of Contract Scotland, said the construction industry in Scotland had been struggling to recruit women into technical and professional roles for the past twenty years. Because the sector failed to take advantage of buoyant market conditions before the recession, it is now still recruiting from a narrow pool of talent.

Despite the fact that few women are entering the field of engineering, people who have graduated are finding it hard to get a job.

Research by Birmingham University has discovered that it is not easy for qualified engineers to get a job that fits their qualifications.

The study found that 46% of the class of 2009 found a position relating to their engineering degree within six months of graduating. A further 20% secured a skilled job, but 24% had to take an unskilled position.

A recent poll from eFinancialCareers’ discovered that 75% of UK graduates would work for free if they thought it would improve their career development and help them secure a permanent job.

Out of the recent batch of finance graduates, the survey found that only 16% have received a job offer. More than a third of finance graduates expect to be unemployed for three months after leaving education.

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It can be a cut-throat world competing for contracts, with several people all after the same position. How do you outshine the rest?

The PCG recently published new advice to help contractors boost their marketability. One key piece of advice is to steer away from presenting work experience in the traditional reverse chronological order.

Instead, the PCG advises creating a section within a CV entitled Contract Portfolio. Each contract is then written up as a case study with evidence to demonstrate accomplishments. By adopting this approach, contractors can change the order in which they present the case studies to fit the role they are applying for. Recruiters will still want to know when you worked where, so after the contract portfolio, add a section, possibly entitled career chronology, which lists company name, dates and job title.

Each case study should be written using the STAR methodology of Situation, Task, Actions and Result and you should aim to achieve this in no more than six lines.

The STAR technique can also help when it comes to interviews. A lot of people have the tendency to waffle in a competency based interview, i.e. an interview designed to find out about specific career events. This is mainly due to lack of preparation on behalf of the interviewee. However, if you prepare in advance, based on the STAR methodology, your answers will be coherent and flow naturally.

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David Cameron has vowed that the government will focus on job creation in 2011.

The Prime Minister made the pledge in a recently delivered podcast, saying that the creation of jobs is uppermost in his mind as we move into 2011.

Cameron has already conceded that due to the budget deficit, the public sector will not be able to create new jobs and therefore the onus falls on the SME community, entrepreneurs and other freelancers to generate employment opportunities.

The PM said the government was going to look at ways to lift some of the barriers that prevent people from setting up on their own.

He said he wants to investigate all the reasons why it is so hard to set up, and grow, a business in the UK and the government will get tough to address them. Cameron wants to see a new economic dynamism in the UK and to achieve this the government will put extra pressure on banks to lend money to SMEs. More investment is also needed in the sectors of the future in order to create tens of thousands of new jobs in the green sustainable sector.

Despite Mr Cameron’s words, the PCG still believes that umbrella company contractors are in for a testing time this year. Redundancies, public sector spending cuts and economic uncertainty will all have a role to play in shaping 2011.

John Brazier, the MD of the organisation, says that the freelance community in the UK is in a good position to tackle the challenges ahead. A recent survey from the PCG showed that 60% of UK business leaders would struggle to operate without the help of contractors and more than 50% said the freelance community was essential if the economy is to grow.

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Umbrella company IT contractors might be interested to read that Gartner predicts enterprise IT spending looks as if it will grow next year.

Research by the company shows that spending in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) next year will increase by 1.3% to £493 billion. Senior VP and global head of research at Gartner, Peter Sondergaard, pointed out the EMEA region was the only one to record a drop in IT spending in 2009 and 2010.

The industry analyst expects Western Europe to record a drop of 3.3% this year and then recover with the slowest long-term growth rate of just 0.8% until 2014. By 2011 however, all areas except education and transportation should experience growth.

Greythorn, the recruitment firm, recently carried out research that shows an expected 1.5 million IT positions will be available by the end of this year; the highest amount since before the credit crunch.

Paul Winchester, Greythorn’s managing director said that public sector contractors who have seen positions diminish should easily be able to find contracts in the private sector. West Yorkshire, and in particular Leeds, are already benefiting from banks moving their back office functions away from London.

The 2nd quarter of 2010 saw a 7% increase in UK IT vacancies compared to last year, whilst quarter 3 showed a 12% increase.

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New data released recently by the Office for National Statistics illustrate that the current rates of unemployment in the country have dropped by an additional 8,000 people for the months of May, June, and July, which has brought the overall national total to 2.47 million members of the UK workforce without jobs.

Amidst the good news, the Office for National Statistics also said that the rate of people who instituted new claims with the Jobseekers Alliance actually rose by 2,300 between the months of July and August, bringing the current total to its new figure of 1.47 million people.

REC chief executive Kevin Green commented on the new findings, saying that unemployment rates declining is welcomed news which indicates that the jobs market is stabilising, which coincides with new feedback that has been gathered from recruitment professionals in regards to an increase of activity in hiring for quite a few business sectors.

Mr Green continued, stating that the mixed results as represented by the higher Jobseekers Alliance figures demonstrate that overall there are serious challenges that many groups of job seekers, including umbrella company contractors, may have hard times surmounting, especially for younger workers seeking to break into what has become one of the more competitive labour markets for quite some time.

There is a very urgent need to construct better connections into the employment markets in order to help drive a much-needed restructuring of both the guidance and support frameworks currently on offer, he added.

Mr Green’s gaze turned to the future, stating that there were expectations that unemployment numbers to remain in stasis or to begin a slow incline thanks to the cuts expected to hit the public sector, though he expressed reticence as to the private sector’s ability to pick up the slack; Mr Green cited the September Jobs Outlook for the REC, which showed an increase in cautious hiring intentions as a result of a six month low point in regards to employer confidence, which will most likely repress any expected jobs market growth well into the coming year.

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Freelancers and contractors who rely on the public sector for contracts could find themselves struggling to find work according to the CIPD. The Institute thinks that around 50,000 jobs will be chopped from the sector by spring next year.

The latest market report from the ONS showed that whilst private sector employment increased by 12,000 in the quarter ending April, 7,000 jobs were lost in the public sector.

The private sector is currently showing a welcome revival but will there be enough jobs to go around once public sector cuts get fully underway?

The chief economic adviser to the CIPD, Dr John Philpott, is not optimistic. He says that unless the private sector shows a very strong recovery, unemployment might reach 3 million within the next 2 years.

The majority of the new private sector jobs are part-time, temporary or being filled by self employed people. In fact there are now 1.08 million employees and freelancers working in part-time jobs because they cannot secure a full-time contract.

The quarter ending April also saw a rise of 48,000 in the number of 18 to 24 year olds in work. The majority of these were on training and PAYE employment programmes instigated by the Labour government.

With the full extent of public sector spending cuts expected to be announced in next week’s budget, it is to be hoped that the coalition can prove that its welfare to work measures will continue to help young people.

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Contractors and freelancers working in the accountancy profession expect more financial institutions to create interim opportunities in the coming year.

New research from the umbrella company Giant Group shows that 18% of accountancy contractors expect to find the most opportunities in investment banks and fund management. That’s up from 15.7% in the third quarter last year.

Hardly surprisingly, there’s been a marked drop in the amount of contractors who expect to see opportunities in the public sector. Just 26.5% in the first quarter of this year compared to 39.5% in Q3 last year.

Contractor accountants remain in high demand, along with chefs, HR professionals and software developers.

Another sector where there is currently a high demand for qualified personnel is engineering and this is expected to continue, at least for the next 5 years.

Until 2015, demand for engineers is expected to exceed supply. There are various major national projects underway at the moment, including a wide range associated with the London Olympics.

There is also a big shortage of specialised engineers in the renewable energy sector. Energy companies are looking for alternative ways to generate power, and the government is actively pushing for the UK to adopt a ‘greener’ lifestyle but there are very few graduates with the precise skills required.

Because renewable energy is still a reasonably new concept, finding freelance candidates with both the required skillset and the necessary experience is quite a rare occurrence.

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Contractors, freelancers and umbrella company workers could in line for a bumper summer if the latest online job figures are to be believed.

According to a new report by the Ashdown Group, there has been a steep rise in job vacancies within many freelance industries including marketing, IT, HR and interim accountancy.

Ashdown Group produce their report on a quarterly basis by tracking the volume of jobs being posted on several leading job boards as well as social networking sites.

Indeed, there has several reports in the media recently about the virtues of web 2.0 portals such as facebook, myspace and linkedIn for recruitment purposes.

According to the figures, HR witnesss the biggest increase in jobs, reporting a  10% rise in the number of vacanies compared to January 2010.

Commenting on the findings, a spokesperson from Ashdown Group said that the interim job market in the UK appears to be performing well, with several leading blue chip companies looking to expand their workforce over the summer. There does however appear to be a long way to go before we get a clear picture as to which way the employment market is heading long term. 

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Small businesses, contractors, freelancers and entrepreneurs are feeling optimistic about the end of the economic downturn. Many are now keen to see a return to more profitable times despite the planned increases in tax, national insurance and regulation over the coming years.

PeoplePerHour.com’s recent survey of UK entrepreneurs revealed that only 25% of respondents felt that the latest recession has had that much of an impact on them with more than 30% saying they could benefit from the experience.

These findings are backed up by a new study conducted by Investec Specialist Private Bank and the Entrepeneurs’ Organization. Their results show that nearly 90% of small businesses expect to increase their turnover in 2010.

Other survey findings show that almost 2/3 of respondents feel that the economy will improve this year and nearly 75% believe the economic climate represents an opportunity for them. Close to half (46%) are investing in research and development.

Entrepreneurialism is doing particularly well at the moment, as many people go in search of the niches, gaps and opportunities made available since the recession.

To further encourage this, PeoplePerHour.com has launched its own Virtual Business of the Year Awards to recognise SMEs and entrepreneurs who have embraced web 2.0, virtual working and the opportunities they represent.

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The government’s proposed increase in National Insurance Contributions could result in clients not wanting to hire, recruitment agencies finding placements harder to come by and contractors and umbrella companies feeling the effects, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

The increase is due to come into effect from 6^th April 2011. In his last Pre-Budget Report before the next Election, the Chancellor laid out his plans for an additional half percent on National Insurance Contributions for self employed individuals, employees and employers. These rises will take effect in addition to the extra 0.5% NIC already confirmed for 2010. Employers National Insurance will increase to 13.8%.

New research from the CIPD has shown that more than 10% of UK employers plan to decrease recruitment as a result of the planned 1% increase in NIC, whilst a further 8% said they will relieve staff in order to balance the increased rates.

The CIPD, in collaboration with the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), is now calling on the government not to introduce any more increases to the cost of employing staff.

Edward Winterton, a recruitment specialist from Bibby Financial Services said that Alistair Darling’s plans will come as a “nasty surprise” to the recruitment industry at a time when it is already suffering as a result of the economic downturn.

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Online recruitment is on the up according to Monster’s Employment Index for December.

The index closed the year on a 12 month high, posting a reading of 120, a rise of four points on the November figure.

Sectors such as finance, legal, HR and manufacturing all recorded an upsurge in the number of job opportunities in December.  However, demand remained static for the creative and design sectors such as engineering, architecture and construction. ‘Professional’ positions witnessed their most dramatic decline year-on-year, reporting a drop of 27%.

Regionally, Wales witnessed the largest upturn with demand now higher than in the corresponding period last year. Scotland and London also saw marked improvements. In fact Northern Ireland was the only region to report a decline in December.

The Monster Index monitors 21 sectors and 15 of those reported increases in web-based recruitment during December. Job vacancies rose by eight points in the maintenance, manufacturing and production sectors as more and more employers used web 2.0 and social media to increase their internet job advertising. This shows a change in attitude as these industries have traditionally been less inclined to use the internet for recruitment purposes.

The results suggest that the UK recruitment market is finally emerging ahead of its continental counterparts. This is borne out by the results of the Monster Employment Index for Europe which, at 100 points in December, was unchanged from the previous month.

Across Europe as a whole, December saw a sharp rise in demand for legal positions, while sales and service personnel witnessed their largest gain month on month among occupational groups.

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