IT Jobs Report October

What we saw in last month’s IT Jobs news:

Employers are feeling better about themselves as the year moves on, and last month’s data suggests the possibility of a turnaround in hiring over the next few months.

Permanent placements have been falling for most of the past year now from abnormal post-pandemic highs. While permanent hiring activity continues to slow, the rate of contraction eased from that seen in August.

Likewise, temporary hiring remains robust with billings growing in September, with billings up for the fourth time in as many months. “This feels like a market that is finding the bottom of a year-long slowdown. And the relative buoyancy of the private sector is likely to be driving this more positive outlook.

Some sectors such as accounting/financial, blue collar, engineering and healthcare continue to experience very strong demand. Along with high inflation, this is likely to be contributing to the growth of pay for temps and perms alike.

Permanent Staff Hiring Eases (while temp billings rise)

Recruitment consultancies across the UK signalled a softer, but still solid decline in permanent staff appointments during September. According to panellists, companies remained hesitant to commit to new permanent hires due to ongoing economic uncertainty and efforts to control costs. A preference for short-term staff meanwhile supported a fresh rise in temp billings at the end of the third quarter.

There were frequent reports that companies remained hesitant to hire extra workers or had implemented recruitment freezes due to rising costs and lingering economic uncertainty. Skill shortages also contributed to difficulties filling vacancies. 

Starting Pay Increases

September survey data pointed to a further easing of overall pay growth across the UK. Though sharp, the rate of starting salary inflation edged down to a two-and-a-half-year low, while temp wages increased at the slowest rate in 31 months.

While competition for skilled workers and the higher cost of living continued to place upward pressure on pay, there were some reports of greater strain on clients’ budgets.

Candidate Availability Improves (slowly)

The overall availability of candidates improved again in September. Although the pace of expansion softened further from July’s recent high, both permanent and temporary labour supply increased at historically strong rates.

Anecdotal evidence generally linked the latest upturn to redundancies and a slowdown in market conditions.

Overall vacancies fall slightly in September

Total vacancies slipped into contraction territory in September, marking the first fall in overall demand for staff since February 2021.

The rate of contraction was only marginal, however. Underlying data revealed a fresh reduction in permanent vacancies, albeit one that was slight, while growth of demand for temp staff moderated to a four-month low.

Demand for permanent staff fell across both the private and public sectors during September, with private seeing much steeper rates of decline.

Official data: UK job vacancies

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) pointed to a further reduction in overall vacancies in the three months to August 2023. At 989,000 the number of open roles dropped by 64,000 since the three months to May and slipped below the 1 million mark for the first time in over two years. Overall, the figure was -24% lower than the post pandemic record of 1,302,000. However, the number of job opportunities was comfortably above that recorded just before the COVID-19 pandemic (826,000 in the three months to February 2020). 

IT Job Roles in Demand

BIM Modellers

Cyber Security

Data Engineers

Developers 

IT

Software Engineers

Technology