KPMG: Demand for permanent UK IT staff on the rise
While appetite for temporary staff is lowest for more than two years
Demand for permanent IT staff has grown from July to August 2015, but the need for temporary staff is at its lowest level in 26 months, a KPMG report has claimed.
KPMG's figures are based on a specially created index, in which anything above 50 is classed as an increase, and below the 50 threshold is a decline.
The joint report from the accounting firm and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) is a monthly publication displaying the state of the recruitment market, which includes the IT and computing sector.
Using the aforementioned indexing method, KPMG’s Report on Jobs showed that the call for permanent IT and computing staff was at 64.4 in August 2015, compared with 62.8 the previous month.
However, this was a decline year on year from the 69.5 per cent recorded in August 2014.
The need for temporary staff has dropped from 65.2 in August 2014 to 58.7 in the same month this year, a slight drop from 59.1 in July 2015.
The report says this signalled the slowest growth rate in the temp IT and computing staff sector for 26 months.
KPMG partner Heath Jackson said: “There was no respite for recruiters in August, who were left struggling to fill vacancies after a vast swathe of Britain’s job seekers appeared to take the summer off.
“Many candidates may have simply shelved their plans for the summer, believing their prospects to be stronger in September. However, this is of little comfort to those businesses needing staff now to meet demand for their goods and services."
The report stated that the key skill shortages in the permanent IT and computing staff sector occurred among developers, digital media, gaming, Java and .Net. In the temp staff area the only skill shortage was Java, according to the findings.
Jackson concluded: “With candidates having their pick of the job market, companies need to offer more than just cash. In order to attract and retain the best people, businesses need to offer a bespoke package of benefits, including flexible working, which can be tailored to suit the individual and their priorities and commitments.”
Backing up KPMG's findings on the permanent IT jobs market, Marc Sumner, managing director of specialist recruitment agency Robertson Sumner, told CRN earlier this week that the channel was experiencing its most frantic recruitment drive in 15 years thanks to an uplift in market confidence, sparking a fierce battle to secure the best talent.