The IT Job Board have revealed that in the current UK economic downturn companies are more reluctant to hire permanent staff, favouring contractors. The IT Job Board’s study cited research from pre-employment firm Powerchex, which revealed that the number of jobs offered to IT contractors doubled between April and May of 2009.
The IT industry and businesses services are intricately linked and with the development of new software and hardware, businesses must enhance their own infrastructure to remain competitive. This has helped to create project based work which has in turn lead to an increase in the number of IT contract jobs available in the market. Companies would rather hire an IT contractor to work on a specific project rather than hire a permanent member of staff.
The more common job roles of an IT contractor are those including developers and project managers and various other software development roles. Whilst an IT contractor generally earns a higher salary for an IT contract job than a permanent one, the diverse nature of an IT contract means the salaries can differ by a considerable amount.
The recent salary survey found that a software developer based in the North West can expect to earn up to £57 per hour, where as in the South East, they can expect to earn up to £44 per hour. IT contractors also benefit from flexible working hours and a daily food allowance.
