Contractor billings and vacancies in Scotland both increased during August 2012. This suggests that not only is client demand strengthening, but there are also sufficient contractors available to fill assignments. The permanent labour market saw an increase in vacancies, but falling placements, indicating that employee supply is failing to meet demand.
The Bank of Scotland Report on Jobs for August also highlights a marked rate of decline in contractor availability, the lowest level since November 2007, as contractors are snapped up to meet the demand.
The strongest rise in demand was reported for IT and computing contractors, with the report confirming that, “the rate of increase was marked and stronger than that recorded one month previously.”
This surge in IT contractor demand is consistent with UK video games capital Dundee reporting the fastest growth of short-term appointments. However, financial centre Edinburgh, another major consumer of IT contractors in Scotland, was the only region to experience a decline in contractor billings.
“The Scottish labour market showed a welcome improvement in August, with increases in temporary jobs,” notes Bank of Scotland chief economist Donald MacRae. “However, appointments to permanent jobs fell for the second successive month, illustrating the challenge of maintaining the overall trend of increasing employment.
“The Scottish economy is showing resilience in the face of the global slowdown,” he adds.
In contrast to the success of the IT sector, retaining the top spot in the demand league tables, the performance of the engineering and construction sector only just stayed in growth territory, with vacancy growth at its lowest levels since January 2011 and falling to last but one in the performance table.
The other core contracting sectors of executive and professional and accounts and financial performed well too, in fourth and fifth place respectively; both “posted strong rates of vacancy growth.”
Overall, the contracting sector in Scotland is performing slightly better than the UK as a whole. But the gap is narrowing, as the KPMG/Recruitment and Employment Confederation Report on Jobs for August showed contract billings increasing for the first time in nine months.