The
digital jobs market is acting a bit like an over-eager child who takes his stabilisers off his bike to soon at the moment, let me explain. They get pretty good maybe even try a bunny-hop or one handed but then over the handle bars they go, one fat lip later and the stabilisers go back on.
So what has my learning to cycle got to do with recruiting in the digital space? It’s all about confidence. Like any market be it
financial or digital, there are always going to be shifts and we may well be in the middle of one at the moment. The start of this year saw an increase in the number of opportunities for both contract and permanent staff, as this
econsultancy report shows.
The market is now seeing a little bit of knee jerk to the wider economic climate and I’ve spoken to two clients that have put in place a headcount freeze for a minimum of 3 months. I haven’t heard “headcount freeze” for at least 6 months!
I’m not saying we’re coming to a grinding and painful stop “a la” great crash of 2008, but there is more caution in the market this second quarter of the year. This is backed up by the general
IT market trends, showing a slight increase in permanent hires but a slowing in temps.
Watching the waistline for summer and chopping the fat from the bottom line could well be the theme for the summer. There are still plenty of opportunities at the moment, so if you are looking for a move or considering, get yourself out there now to maximise your opportunities. Similarly if you’re a client, if you’ve got headcount, use it, it might just be like the proverbial rug under the feet if you don’t.
There will always be a contract/freelance market in digital, it’s the nature of the market and the projects we work on so don’t go panicking and packing in the Limited Company just yet, but I would start looking for contracts 4-5 weeks before your end date and I would consider being a little bit flexible on that rate, because I can assure you your recruiter is getting the squeeze put on!
I’m not a doom-munger so let’s finish on a high, according to
mashable the US are predicting the big growth areas to be Mobile Apps, Data Warehousing and User Experience and we’re normally not far behind ………….I’ll drink to that!
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