In a survey of small businesses in the UK, research found that nearly two-thirds of the small businesses questioned said they planned to increase their spending on IT this year.
38% said they were planning to increase their use of IT contractors over the next two years, compared to 18% who said they intend to hire permanent staff.
Those with PHP skills are most in demand by small businesses and are closely followed by those with SEO and link building knowledge. IT Contractors proficient in WordPress, iPhone apps, MySQL, and HTML development are increasingly being demanded also.
Reported on Silicon.com, over 75% of the businesses surveyed said they currently use freelancers for IT and web development projects. 57% of respondents said they do so because it is a simple way of finding specialised skills. 20% per cent said they use freelancers when there is too much work on for the in-house team to manage.
