Contractors who can offer IT, engineering and technical skills are enjoying increasing demand for their services, as one in five clients predicts shortages of these hard to source skills will worsen.
The Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s (REC) JobsOutlook for December 2014 also highlights that contractor clients are principally using contractors to support their growth plans, as well as a “source of short-term access to key strategic skills”.
“Businesses are increasingly thinking about expanding their numbers and many are telling us that they can’t take on more work without more staff,” highlights REC chief executive Kevin Green. “At the same time, the UK is suffering from skills shortages across the economy and it’s getting harder for hirers to attract and retain the talent they need.”
ContractorCalculator CEO Dave Chaplin believes that contractor demand will also be fuelled by election uncertainty: “Businesses hate uncertainty and risk, and that’s what this year holds with the results of May’s General Election far from clear. During these times permanent hires are put on hold and clients use contractors to fill the gaps.”
The JobsOutlook reports that 43% of contractor clients plan to increase their contractor headcounts in the next three months, with 46% of client planning to hire more contractors over the coming year.
Green points out that there is a source of talent available to ease the skills shortages, if only it can be mobilised: “Employers should seek to improve recruitment practices and tap into talent pools that might have been overlooked. For example, we have 1m 50-64 year olds who have been made redundant in the UK, and that’s a huge amount of skill and experience that businesses could benefit from to help meet demand.”
Chaplin notes that these older workers are ideal candidates to become contractors: “Contractors deliver an established skill set often accompanied by considerable operational experience.
“A good proportion of those redundant 50-64 year olds may not want to find full-time permanent employment as they near retirement, but may wish to keep active and boost their incomes.
“With 30-40 years of experience in the workplace and the highly developed skills that come with such long service, many of these older redundant workers could readily make the leap into contracting and ease the skills shortages.”
The JobsOutlook also shows that the engineering, finance, industrial, professional and sales sectors are all predicted to see elevated levels of hiring in the next quarter.