IT contractors benefit from growing City recruitment
IT contractor fortunes appear to be on the up. A survey of City of London recruiters by Morgan McKinley reveals that 82% believe hiring will increase in 2010. In fact, things started improving at the end of last year, with December 2009 job vacancies up by 24% compared to 2008. According to Andrew Evans, Managing Director of Morgan McKinley’s financial services division: “These survey results reinforce the view that confidence continues to return to the City.” More…
Global IT spending to grow 4.6% – good news for IT contractors with a wanderlust
More good news for IT contractors, especially those keen to try a spell at contracting abroad. According to IT analyst Gartner, global IT spending in 2010 is forecast to be a staggering $3.4 trillion, up 4.6% on 2009. Conversely, IT spending in 2009 fell by 4.6% with hardware hardest hit. IT services are set to increase above average, at 5.6%. This is an encouraging trend for IT contractors who fancy taking on a contract in the emerging markets of South America, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific that will grow the fastest. More…
Contractors could gain from business red tape
There’s an unexpected silver lining from all the red tape being used to tie up businesses in the UK. The Agency Workers Directive, the Equality Bill, Pensions reform, plus the extra penny on National Insurance Contributions, are all likely to result in employees looking increasingly unattractive compared to contractors. In fact, research by the British Chambers of Commerce claims that UK employers are facing new employment laws and taxes that will cost £25.6 billion in the next four years. More….
Social networking could win you contracts!
“Social networking is a great way to make connections with potential job opportunities and promote your personal brand across the Internet,” Says Farhan Yasin, President of CareerBuilder EMEA. Over half of employers now research new hires by checking them out online using social networking sites, according to a CareerBuilder.co.uk survey of hiring managers and HR professionals. It also showed that 43% use search engines to background-check individuals. More…
Get the inside story on your potential clients
The boot is on the other foot now, with the launch of Judgethejob.com, which allows contractors to find out what it is really like to work with a company before accepting a contract. Contractors won’t be checking out the career prospects or what the perks are like, but are likely to glean valuable leads to help in interviews and to find out what it might be like to spend five days a week on site in the client’s offices. If it’s a war zone, you’ll be able to decline the contract before entering the client’s minefield! More…
‘Top ten’ bungled IT projects cost taxpayer £26 billion
Professional IT contractors will be dismayed at the negative press from an investigation by The Independent newspaper. The investigation reports that the total cost of the ten ‘most notorious’ failed IT projects commissioned by the Labour administration is £26 billion. Ministers were accused of ‘stupendous incompetence’ for commissioning ‘fundamentally flawed’ projects by Parliament’s spending watchdog, the Public Accounts Committee. More…
Credit checks worth the cost, as 140,000 firms in financial trouble
Contractors taking on new clients are always wise to invest in credit rating checks, but even more so now, it seems. Corporate recovery and insolvency practitioners Begbies Traynor has just reported that 140,000 companies experienced ‘significant and critical financial problems’ in the last quarter of 2009. Begbies Traynors fears a sharp increase in insolvencies when the current ‘time-to-pay’ scheme offered by HMRC is finished. So to make sure your future clients have the money to cover the rate agreed in your contract, give them a credit check before signing on the dotted line. More…