The UK IT jobs market is showing signs of recovery. Advertised vacancies are on the increase and stock market shares in software companies and IT agencies have made significant gains during the last 12 months.
Statistics from CWJobs UK show Q2 2003 contract IT vacancies across UK rose 7% compared to Q1 2003 and Inner London permanent vacancies rose by 17% and contract vacancies by 46% in the same period.
JobsMeta (which monitors the number of jobs advertised across 17 different job sites) shows a recent week on week increase of nearly 3000 vacancies to a total of 23,000. Vacancies have rarely been above 20,000 since last November.
Jobstats have seen a 5% increase in advertised vacancies since May this year and vacancies are getting close to the figure for last autumn.
Skills-wise, SQL, Unix and C++ are the top skills being sought for permanent positions with SQL, Oracle and Unix being the top skills required for contractors.
Software companies and IT agencies have shown significant recovery in their share prices with:
| LogicaCMC | 86p to 180.5p |
| Kewill Systems | 6.5p to 48p |
| Harvey Nash | 11.5p to 50.5p |
| Spring | 31p to 88.5p |
Accountancy firms report an upward trend in new business, particularly in the contractor market.
All these are both welcome and encouraging signs of recovery, so this might be the right time to polish the CV!