ContractorCalculator Releases Market Report For June 2015

With increasing global demand for IT professionals, financial experts, engineers and construction workers, contractors are likely to benefit from the skills and talent shortage being witnessed both in the UK and abroad – that’s according to ContractorCalculator’s market report for June this year.

Furthermore, the report indicates promising times ahead for contractors with digital and big data skills, as businesses struggle to keep up with new digital technologies and innovations and take on more specialised help. This is also leading to the rise of the chief digital officer (CDO) role.

Here are some other interesting findings from the report:

Contractors with niche skills in higher demand than ever

As candidate numbers continue to drop, those with niche skills are in increasingly high demand, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC)/KPMG Report on Jobs for April shows. While contractor agency billings increased, the rise was the smallest in six months, indicating a lack of skilled workers available to fill the roles.

Despite the candidate shortage spelling good news for contractors in the short term, the REC’s Kevin Green is concerned about “how sustainable this jobs boom is as skill and talent shortages become rife.”

IT and engineering skills are harder to find

As more employers seek IT and engineering experts to close the skills gap, contractors with these skills will be in growing demand. With more than 84% of respondents to the REC’s latest JobsOutlook survey stating that they used contractors to access ‘key strategic skills,’ there are more opportunities for short-term placements, but also more cases of contractors being retained, too.

Scotland’s market beginning to recover

There was a steep decline in contractor availability in Scotland throughout April. Combined with increased demand – albeit at a slower rate – this suggests that the contract market is starting to show signs of recovery – particularly in the core disciplines of IT and computing.

Contractors benefitting from lack of key talent

The Manpower Group 2015 Talent Shortage Survey found that across the globe, more than 41,000 hiring managers said that the number of employers struggling to fill positions rose from 36% in 2014 to 38% this year. Engineering was cited as the third most ‘hard to find’ talent, with Accounting & Finance coming in seventh place, and IT in ninth.