Contractors is core contracting disciplines of engineering, construction, media and marketing are benefitting from increasing contract opportunities as a result of accelerating economic growth and infrastructure investment.
February 2015’s Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)/KPMG Report on Jobs highlights that demand for media and marketing contractors is increasing as firms seek to take advantage of new business opportunities. Engineering and construction professionals are in increasingly short supply as infrastructure projects ramp up.
REC chief executive Kevin Green explains: “Recruiters are reporting talent shortages across the economy as businesses expand in response to increasing demand. The question now is about sustainability. Skills shortages are threatening economic growth.
“This month’s report again highlights skill shortages in engineering and construction, which threaten to delay major infrastructure projects such as HS2 and new house building initiatives.
“Candidates for marketing and customer service roles are now also becoming hard to fill. Demand for these roles is a sign that businesses are responding to increasing consumer and business confidence.”
KPMG partner and head of business services Bernard Brown agrees, adding: “The availability of skilled candidates remains a significant concern and businesses are already fiercely competing to secure top talent.This dynamic is driving significant salary growth in pockets of the market, such as the IT and engineering sectors, where the demand/supply mismatch is particularly prevalent.”
Despite this elevated demand for contractors, the core contracting disciplines sit quite low in the demand league table. Engineering is in fourth place, followed by IT & computing in sixth place. Accounting and financial, construction and executive professional are in seventh, eighth and ninth place respectively.
However, each category is showing strong demand growth and their relatively low placing is more down to the exceptional demand for contractors and temps in nursing, blue collar and secretarial than any weakness in contractor demand.
The strength of the contracting market is also supported by the sharp rise in contractor agency billings, alongside elevated rates and falling candidate availability.