John Brazier commented;

“We are not at all surprised freelancers are in demand, they are the natural accelerants of the economy as UK Plc gets back on its feet. However, we still live in uncertain times and government must wind up the rhetoric and start cutting red tape and regulations to enable the freelance workforce to deliver its full potential.”

The survey, which highlighted that the past 12 months had proved a “tough road” for contract workers, showed that contractors working within the public sector were hit hardest, with 13% migrating to the private sector in 2010. Despite pressures in the public sector, the group found that three quarters of the sample were “in-contract” for at least 11 out of the last 12 months with 84% reporting their contract rate had either stayed the same or had improved.

The figures were described as disappointing by Chancellor George Osborne given that unemployment amongst young people and women both rising; female unemployment in particular rose to a 23 year high of 1.05 million.

The REC’s Kevin Green said that they had predicted this slowdown in demand for staff, despite reporting a rise in business confidence recently. He did however, point to the fact that new jobs are being created, with a flexible workforce helping to prevent further slumps in unemployment.

“The ONS figures show that 25,000 new jobs were created, of which 20,000 came in the temporary market.  With a near-record number of people also working part-time, it is clear that employers are looking to flexible workers to sustain their business through these tough times, preventing potentially much worse news.”

“There is also encouraging news on the ability of the private sector to absorb public sector job losses. Public sector employment fell by 39,000 in the quarter to March 2011, but the private sector more than made up for this by generating 104,000 jobs over the same period.”

Mr Green finished by saying that although they do not expect significant job growth until late next year, the UK labour market is “resilient” with flexible working options playing a crucial role.

Employment Minister Chris Grayling also spoke of the need to support business growth in order to create new jobs. “The challenge for us is to create an environment where businesses are growing, and developing and investing and creating jobs. That is the only way that we will create sustainable employment for the future.”

ICS are one of the leading contractor accountants and administration companies and have helped thousands of contractors working in a range of industry sectors. You can contact us now for a tailored proposal based on your individual circumstances as a contractor.

“Flexible working practices were one of the main reasons employment held up comparatively well during the recession, and can also bring significant benefits now that the economy is recovering.”

“The benefits are not only economic. Evidence shows that people who have taken control of their careers through freelancing and other forms of self-employment have higher levels of job satisfaction, as well as general health and wellbeing.”

The REC have also welcomed government plans which will see more opportunity for private sector organisations to take control of public sector projects. Director of Policy Tom Hadley believes this reform is a step forward for the private sector who he believes are often better placed to deliver public services; offering expertise and increasing standards.

“Opening up the provision of public services will also help drive the Government’s aim of enabling 25 percent of contracts to be awarded to SMEs.  This should have the dual advantage of making public services more efficient and competitive, as well as providing contracts to firms who can help drive the recovery.”

ICS are one of the leading contractor accountants and administration companies and have helped thousands of contractors working in a range of industry sectors. You can contact us now for a tailored proposal based on your individual circumstances as a contractor.

The fall in unemployment was helped by the overall employment level rising by 50,000, to record the highest total of employment in over 2 years; 29.28 million. The ONS also reported that the private sector was continuing to surpass the public sector losses, with 104,000 private sector positions created in this period and 24,000 public sector jobs cut.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development are still predicting unemployment to peak in mid-2012, particularly with many public sector cuts still to come. However, the last few months of falling unemployment have led them to revise their prediction from a rate of 9.5% to 8.7%, a forecast of 2.7 million unemployed.

Tom Hadley, REC’s Director of Policy, said that the fall in employment is good news and a sign of the UK jobs market slowly recovering. He was again optimistic about the private sector absorbing the additional public sector job cuts, but spoke about overcoming the caution seen from many businesses.

“In the short-term, employers remain relatively cautious with the recruitment of new staff seen as a risk. However, there is also a risk in not recruiting. Employers need to bring in staff who can drive the business forward and avoid existing staff having to carry an unsustainable workload.”

With a number of sectors performing well, including engineering and construction, there are growing opportunities for contractors. As long at the private sector continues to absorb the job losses and create new jobs at the rate which is it, then there is optimism from many recruiters that the UK market will continue to recover.

ICS are one of the leading contractor accountants and administration companies and have helped thousands of contractors working in a range of industry sectors. You can contact us now for a tailored proposal based on your individual circumstances as a contractor.

With the profile of contractors highlighted recently, such as through last weeks National Freelancers Day, a number of groups have also seen encouraging results in the amount of jobs available.

Jobsadwatch.co.uk found that IT contract vacancies increased by 23.3% and the IT sector has seen three consecutive quarters of growth. These figures, from the October 2010 quarterly survey, are promising for the IT sector, although it found that IT vacancies are only at half that the level they were pre-recession. The Monster Employment Index also saw a sharp increase in October. Online contract opportunities improved across a number of core contracting sectors, including IT and engineering.

However, Jeff Brooks, who is the chairman of the RECs IT sector group, believes that the public sector is still reluctant to increase IT contracts. He said, “There is uncertainty [in] the public sector. It is not recruiting IT contractors in any volume whatsoever; many have been let go ahead of term. We also do not see any signs of upward pressure on [public or private] IT contractor pay rates.”

Despite this he still urges IT contractors to persevere.

“Overall, IT recruiters have had a much better year in 2010 than in the previous two, and expect demand to hold up next year without heading towards any sort of boom.”

There has been a bad period recently for contractors and freelancers, with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation estimating that there have already been around 120,000 temporary public sector jobs terminated in the last few months.

However in the long run there is widespread agreement within the contracting industry that these cuts will provide much more opportunity for temporary workers. The REC believe that, “Public bodies will be forced to become leaner and to fundamentally reform the way that many services are delivered. Flexible staffing arrangements will need to become an intrinsic element of cost-effective resourcing strategies.”

They also intend to campaign to the government to argue that, “Using temporary, contract and interim management staff is part of the solution, not part of the problem.”

The government have highlighted a number of areas, including construction and engineering, where spending will either continue or be increased, which again provides further opportunity for high skilled contract workers.

The chancellor said that the cuts “Will be achieved through natural turnover, by leaving posts unfilled as they become vacant. But yes, there will be some redundancies – up to the decisions of individual employers in the public sector – that is unavoidable when the country has run out of money.”

He also said that the private sector is expected to create far more jobs than the public sector losses, though this has been disputed by many others.

Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling has said, “I remain fundamentally concerned that the job cuts being envisaged will jeopardise the economic recovery.”

And BBC business editor Robert Peston agrees, saying that although the government expects the private sector to make up for the losses in public sector jobs “We haven’t yet seen massive private sector job recruitment. And cuts in the public sector will impact private sector jobs. The transition could yet be pretty painful.”

We will be following the reaction to the spending review over the next few days, so check back on our blog for updates.

The results were mixed; good news is that both permanent and temporary roles have increased in June but the rate of growth has slowed down. Demand for highly skilled contractors continued to increase with rates of pay also on the up.

Kevin Green, chief executive of the REC, said the figures pointed to a stable jobs market with appointment rates in sectors such as construction and engineering, still rapidly growing.

However, with predictions of hundreds of thousands of job losses in the public sector, it is too early to tell how much of a knock-on effect this will have on job creation in the private sector.

Contractors are flexible by nature so we hope it won’t negatively impact contractors too much and instead increase opportunities available to them.

For the first time, the demand for freelance senior experienced executives to work in the public sector is higher than the private sector. And all the indications are that the trend is likely to continue. Interims who have traditionally worked in the private sector but have seen their freelance opportunities disappear because of the recession, are now turning to the public and voluntary sectors instead.

Tom Brass, chairman of the Institute of Interim Managers, which represents those working in the profession, says: “While the market has been very tough, that’s been confined to the private sector. The general feeling is that public sector has held up pretty well and, if anything, has grown.”

Specialist agencies that recruit interims in the public and voluntary sectors believe the future is bright for these highly skilled managers, because one of their key roles is to go into organisations and help them run more efficiently.

IMA chairman Paul Botting says: “The most important thing is that for the first time the public sector has seen a dramatic growth over the private sector. I think the public sector generally sees interims as a solution – that they get pragmatic, experienced individuals who can hit the ground running who have the experience, the scar tissue and credibility to take the team with them.”

Contractors have been advised to now use this website portal to search for government contracts.

The move follows recommendations in the Glover Review of November 2008, which showed that many public sector buyers were missing out on savings as too few small-to-medium enterprises could access the contracts.

Economic secretary to the Treasury, Ian Pearson, stated; “Small and medium sized businesses are a crucial part of the UK economy and in these challenging times it is essential that we support them in as many ways as possible. By introducing a free to use national search service we are helping to create a level playing field on which small to medium enterprises (SMEs) can compete with their larger counterparts. This will realise benefits for SMEs, the economy as a whole, and help drive further innovation in public services.”

Matt Goodman, a policy representative for the Forum for Private Business (FPB) said that this new measure should help save more small firms from closure and provide a catalyst for economic recovery.

By 2010, the government aims to advertise all contract opportunities through one, free online web portal.