IT contractors flock to City firms

The number of IT contractors employed in the public sector has fallen for the first time in three years, according to research published last week.

Some 26 per cent of all UK IT contractors now work in the public sector compared with 27 per cent six months ago.

The financial services industry has seen a two per cent increase in the number of IT contractors it uses, accounting for a further 26 per cent of all positions.

Contractor services provider Giant Group, which published the research, says a combination of successful times for City finance bodies and the completion of projects associated with the egovernment programme account for the changes.

‘With City institutions now so profitable it is no surprise to see the public sector lose out in the war for IT talent,’ said Matthew Brown, managing director of Giant Group.

‘New public sector IT programmes have recycled some of the skills from e-government projects that have wound down.’

But Georgina O’Toole, senior analyst at Ovum, says it is unlikely that the public sector will see a reduction in its overall demand for contractors.

‘The transformation agenda is just building up. There is still a lot of work to be done with projects such as the NHS IT programme,’ she said.

Regarding the rise in demand for contractors in the financial services sector, O’Toole said: ‘Financial services organisations are having to meet a lot of new regulations, which requires a lot more work on their IT systems.’

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Further reading:

Banks cut costs with outsourcing