IT staff back in demand after jobs market hits "tipping point"
By Stewart Mitchell
Posted on 5 Nov 2009 at 07:58
Jobs in the IT sector are growing for the first time in nearly two years, according to figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and consultant company KPMG.
In the October edition of its monthly Report on Jobs, the confederation said the overall jobs market had reached “the tipping point into growth, driven by returning confidence in the private sector”.
On a scale where a baseline of 50 represents no change and anything above shows more vacancies, permanent IT and computing positions hit 51.5 in October. For the same period last year, the job market was shrinking rapidly, with a score of 40.
“The important point is that demand is up, month on month, for the first time in a long while,” David Smith, a spokesperson for the confederation's technology group, told PC Pro. “Last year, we were going backwards in a really big way so this is positive.
"The fact that it's growing is confirmation of the anecdotal evidence that overall demand for staff is on the increase."
Temporary and contract positions also grew strongly in October, hitting a heady 53.8 on the confederation's scale.
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That's handy
Good news, seeing as my company is just about to buck the trend and make 1200 IT engineers redundant.
By The_Scrote on 5 Nov 2009 
Not as handy as you think
You have to remember that there has been a lot of redundancies this year in it. So a lot of people will be going for the same job. Just because demand is back, doesn't mean we are in a better shape as it professionals, more competition means it's gonna be tougher to get that role your after.......
By SyKoSiS on 5 Nov 2009
The changing reality over the last 12 months.
I started looking for a new job or at least contract in October last year. At that time when I entered the job market I was getting 4 calls a day from agents and got a bundle of interviews and a contract that took me up to christmas.
Then the market changed, the calls stopped coming, the number of advertised jobs fell by about 80% and market was clearly dead.
In the last month this trend has reversed, the agents are calling, the number of jobs advertised has increased but converting a CV into an interview is difficult as there are some highly skilled and experienced guys out there who are unemployed.
But finally there is some hope.
Thank god I have had some small scale stuff to keep me going.
By Techno2009 on 6 Nov 2009
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