Demand for IT jobs up by 79 per cent in 2005

The IT jobs market has increased in size by 79 per cent since January 2004, according to IT recruitment website CWJobs.co.uk. However, demand for IT staff in the UK has fallen by 4.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2005, the first decline in two years.

The CWJobs/SSL quarterly IT skills index reveals that the sector traditionally referred to as a barometer for overall business trends, saw posts decline for the first time since quarter two 2003. However, the 4.6 per cent dip is likely to be just a blip in the market caused by a variety of factors including Easter falling in March and the impending General Election. Early indications also suggest that job demand in the first two weeks of April is higher than the lull that occurred in March.

And itís good news for IT contractors, as vacancies rose by 1.4 per cent between January and March 2005. This marks the ninth consecutive quarter that the total number of IT contractor jobs on offer in the UK has risen, with an increase of 105 per cent over the last 12 months.

Key regional findings:

Scotland, Northern Ireland, Southern England and the West & Wales have all enjoyed noteworthy rises in contractor vacancies, with an upturn of 10 % in Q1.

Inner London has been the worst hit regionally, with contractor posts falling by 14% and permanent vacancies falling by 18%

The East Midlands and East Anglia saw the biggest drop in permanent positions (over 18%) - due in part to the large number of IT operations and development being transferred offshore by insurance companies in the region
The West Midlands, which previously posted impressive figures, continued in the same vein with a 3% rise in contractor posts while permanent roles in the region dipped by just 0.13%, the lowest decrease throughout the UK

Key IT skills trends:

Employers view OFFICE, SQL, Oracle and Unix as the most wanted skills in the IT contractor market
SQL, OFFICE, Java and C proved to be the most popular skills for permanent IT staff for the same period in Q1 2005


Key results by Industry:

Retail & Distribution is the biggest boom sector for IT personnel - demand for contract staff increased by 26%, and permanent staff by 13% in Q1 2005
Public Sector demand for IT contractors continued the trend seen throughout the last five quarters, with an increase of 13%.

Throughout all sectors the Manufacturing industry posted the worst figures with a 19% drop in permanent staff and a mere 1% increase in contractor roles .

The software houses/consultancies had the greatest decline in contract vacancies with a drop of 9.1% between September 2004 and January 2005.



Commenting on the latest findings, Richard Nott, Commercial Director at CWJobs said: Last quarterís results saw a large increase in permanent IT positions and we are now seeing a balance occurring within the industry. This quarterís slowdown is not unduly worrying - the beginning of the year is a traditionally quiet time as budgets are set for the next 12 months. Another factor is that the trend for outsourcing in the IT sector shows no sign of abating. However, the last major overhaul of IT infrastructure happened in the run up to Y2K - and companies are now realising that these systems are looking a little out of date, so we are expecting to see robust growth in Q2