subject: IT Job market turned upside down [print this page] IT Job market turned upside down IT Job market turned upside down
Wounded
The Jeremeiahs must be licking their wounds when they see how the IT jobs market has bounced.
If anyone was reading the contractor sites and Forums they will remember all the gloom and despondency just 18 months ago. They will remember contractors and agents, supposedly in the know, and well respected, saying that the contracting market would, if anything, get worse and not better.
The Forums were full of contractors saying how hard it was to get a contract or even any work of any description.
Some said that they had tried to get permie jobs but couldn't even get those as agencies and employers were suspicious about their motives and how long they would stay in permiedom.
Gone Quiet
Now it's gone all quiet on the contractors Forums as far as unemployed contractors are concerned. Of course, not everyone is back in work but most of those still on the bench are getting more calls and interviews and now have more hope for the future.
It seems that just about every day now there is some agency or job board or survey saying how well the market is doing and expressing lots of hope for the future.
In fact, agencies are doing so well that it is a surprise that their share prices haven't risen more.
Even offshore outsourcing doesn't seem so attractive nowadays as the price differential disappears fast.
We haven't had the expected flood of IT developers from the EU accession countries either.
Everything in the garden is looking a lot more rosy now. There is even talk again of looming skills shortages.
Main Factor
NamesFacesPlaces said during the downturn that we thought that the market would change for the better and that the main factor involved here was not Y2K, the dotcom boom, Work Permits or offshore outsourcing but the downturn in the economy.
We said that the IT profession, and especially contracting, had become highly cyclical and would be the first area to be chopped at any downturn.
We are glad to see that we were correct, but contractors who are now back in work should forget about the Porsche and the champagne lifestyle.
As sure as night follows day there will be an economic downturn sometime down the line and IT contractors will be thrown out of work in the tens of thousands again.
