So guys, I get a real passion to move back to the UK (from Canada)at least once a year. The time is now , so I have booked my flight for a holiday to see how it is in April.

My question is to all those in the IT business (and I know there are lot of you), how is the job market

Secondly, Is Mike "I love my Cosworth" still around? He lives in my neck of the woods, and I wouldnt have minded meeting up.It would be nice to remind myself what cheeky Gits the English are

Hope the weathers good, and the roads twisty

Martin

 

IT contract market is pretty dead at the moment IMHO.

Also, the government is bringing in some nasty rule called IR35 that will mean contractors will pay about 60% of their turnover in Tax and National insurance (marginal rate of 40% tax + 22% ish NI - employers *and* employees) !

Lots of contractors are packing it in and/or leaving the country.

How's the job market in Canada ?

Kevin.

 

IMHO, market is not brilliant at the moment, but rumoured to be 'about to boom' again. E-Business skills are in demand, what do you know?

 

I find as long as you have the required skills, you wont have any problems in finding contract work in UK. Problem with the UK IT contract market is because it pays so well, every tom dick and harry wants a go at it, this means quality deteriorates as quantity multiplies.

IF you shine in what you do, however, its happy days.

Cem

 

I'm an IT Contractor, and have spoken with a couple of agents recently. They were expecting a boom in January, but this has not materialised. Some stuff is trickling through, but things are pretty quiet. They reckon that it should pick up come March/April, but who knows.

Permanent jobs on ther other hand seem to be more plentiful. The agencies I have spoken to reckon that a lot of companies are trying to replace contract staff with permanent employees.

IR35 doesn't help things as a contractor, but a lot of people have been blowing it out of proportion with "I'm leaving the country" type lines. If you do the maths, yes it does hirt a bit, but contracting is still pretty sweet.

Mail me offline if you need the details of any UK agencies, preferably at GaryCollier@excite.co.uk, since it's easier for me to check than the one on my profile.

Gary.

 

IR35 will hurt contractors a lot.

Once your allowances are used up you will be paying over 60p in tax and NI for every 100p that you earn.

The typical contractor will be around £1K net a month worse off assuming rates don't rise to compensate.

Doesn't sound very sweet to me anymore.

Kevin.

 

i really struggled to find anyone suitable to work for me in Oracle skills last year, everyone, and i mean everyone, i interviewed were complete tossers, the lack of skills out there is frightening.
People who say they are DBA's dont know what the hell they are doing half the time, they seem to rely completely on running scripts written by the senior staff.
If you have good skills in Oracle you are laughing IMHO, hardly any other bugger does.

 

Soo true John

Unfortunately, people seem to assume that just coz they know how to turn a pc on a browse on the internet, all of a sudden they think they are web developers extraordinaire.

Just means that we have to weed through the blaggers.
Cem

 

Whoa... That new government initiative sounds like it may be bad

Trust the good 'ol boys in government to go and make the real talent leave the country...it is one of the reasons I left in the first place.

I wish I could combine the best of all worlds. I miss England to bits... much more than I thought... But every time I speak to friends and hear certain comments it puts me of once again.

The job market in Canada is booming. Here in Alberta, the province is debt free, 4% unemployment. I work for CompCanada and we cant hire enough staff quick enough. Particularly project managers, Lotus notes people, MS exchange SE's.

Anyway, guess I'll have to see it for myself. The Impreza turbo is coming here early next year as a plus point, but the roads are ***P - straight and uninteresting.

Thanks for the comments so far

 

WRT IR35,

Has anybody seen the "Competition Act" which is coming into force next month?

Seems the goverment's left and right hands aren't talking to each other again!!

Check out the IR35 forum on the contractoruk site (thread is "Competition Act v IR35")

Paul L

 

Been programming for 15 years now, and by accident moved into call centre development 7 years ago from banking. You want a job get some CTI experience it has gone balistic recently. I'm a permie but get several offers a week.

 

John,

Couldn't agree more. The problem is not the lack of jobs, but the lack of anyone with the skills to fill them. I interviewed more than 20 people last year for Oracle DBA and development skills and not one of them was up to the job. It's very worrying when agencies and individuals are touting themselves as Oracle DBA's when in reality they've done no more than read about it a bit on their college course.

Eventually I got myself a student and trained him myself.

Regards,

Tiggers (stuck in IT management instead of the real hands-on world that I once knew and loved).

 

I used to be an IT Contractor. Worked on VAX and IBM mainframe doing COBOL, PL1, SQL, etc, etc...

Market died away, with NOTHING on the horizon.

I had to blagg a favour off a mate, and now have a permanent job as a Junior Developer with an Internet/Intranet design company. Income reduced by 75% and thus I've gotta sell my Scooby (Much of which was financed).

Sob story, huh? At least I'm now getting training in JavaScript, VBscript, ASP and HTML...Another 18 months, and I'll be back contracting again.

Buy a P1, then...

Always options people! One door closes, and another one opens. Shame about my Scoob, though!!!!