Regional demand drives contractor vacancy growth to 16-year high

It should interest clients of any media contractor in London to read that according to a report on the ContractorCalculator website, August saw contractor vacancy growth reach a 16-year high, with openings rising at their fastest rate since May 1998. Greater recruitment in the English regions had much to do with this growth, which suggests that they may be the best place for many contractors to look for their next well-paid contract.

The latest Report on Jobs of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) suggested that clients were increasingly turning to talent outside the English capital due to skills shortages, contributing to more opportunities and higher rates for these contractors.

REC CEO Kevin Green commented: "The jobs market is often criticised for being London-centric but our data shows that rates of growth for both permanent starting salaries and temp pay rates are faster in the South, Midlands and North this month. Recruiters tell us that the driver behind this increase is the competition to attract and retain the skilled people outside London."

However, according to another study, August also saw a steep drop in hiring and contractor availability in the financial centre of London. This was attributed to the "traditional summer slowdown" by the operations director at one major financial services provider, who described the "blip" as "entirely expected and not reflective of the general upward trend in hiring, shown in the annual 18 per cent rise in vacancies. We predict the market will bounce back in September."

Green shared this upbeat attitude to contractor prospects, pointing out that across all regions and sectors - including construction, IT and engineering - more people were being placed into jobs. Indeed, the Report on Jobs' demand league tables placed engineering and construction in second and third place respectively, while the accounting and financial category was ranked seventh, in an apparent reflection of the aforementioned drop in City hiring.

The IT and computing category was in seventh place in July, but slid to eighth place in August, although this was due to stronger performances in other contractor and temp categories rather than lessened demand for IT contractors, which was actually higher than it had been the previous month. Demand growth in the interim management contractor market remained sluggish, however, explaining its continued appearance in last place.

Editor’s Note: SAIL Business Solutions (http://www.sailsolutions.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.