IT Contractor Confidence Soars In Improving Market

Results of the latest contractor research from CWJobs, which surveyed nearly 3,000 IT job seekers in the UK, show that 43% of all IT job seekers are more confident of getting a new contract position than they were at the beginning of 2004. The results of the CWJobs web-based survey also revealed that IT contractors are becoming more optimistic when it comes to salary increases as well: 54% of contractors expect their rates to increase in 2004 with 13% of these expecting an increase of as much as 20%. The most popular industries for job seekers were software, electronics/communications and finance. When prompted about possible threats to UK IT jobs, over 70% of respondents thought that offshore outsourcing and the opening up of the EU would increase competition for UK-based contract positions. However, the CWJobs survey also revealed that the EU presented an opportunity as well as a threat, with 72% of contractors stating that they would consider jobs outside the UK. The most popular destination was within the EU, with 83% interested in positions in existing EU member countries and 39% specifically interested in emerging member countries. Perhaps unsurprisingly for IT job seekers, the most effective method of getting a contract position was found to be via online recruitment methods. 53% of respondents favoured job boards and job alerts, compared to 23% who thought that registering with a recruitment agency was the most effective way of getting a job.