Decline in IT job vacancies accelerates

Demand for IT staff from recruitment consultancies hitting new lows

It is becoming harder to find new jobs in IT

The decline in IT job vacancies is continuing to accelerate, according to figures from recruitment consultancies.

The latest monthly Report on Jobs from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG shows that the index of demand for IT staff in February was 40 per cent lower than in January – itself a six-year low.

Across the whole UK recruitment market, the number of vacancies fell at a record rate as the economic downturn continues to bite. Only the nursing, medical and healthcare sector showed an increase in demand.

Permanent IT vacancies have an index ranking of 30.1 in the study – a rank of 50 means no change, greater than 50 is an increase in demand, and below that figure represents a fall. Twelve months before the February survey, IT's ranking was 54.

Despite its decline, the IT sector is holding up better than most – it still has the second highest number of vacancies being advertised by recruitment consultancies.

But competition for those jobs is become increasingly intense – the REC/KPMG survey also showed that “staff availability” – the number of people looking for jobs – rose significantly.

The strongest demand for IT skills last month was for professionals with experience in C# and .Net development.

“Redundancies and fewer job opportunities were cited as the principal factors underlying a further marked increase in the supply of candidates to fill job vacancies in February,” said REC chief executive Kevin Green.

“It is clear that we have not yet hit the bottom of the jobs market with demand for staff continuing to contract. Every job must be seen as an opportunity to keep people in work, including temporary, interim and contract positions.”

Mike Stevens, head of business services at KPMG, said the firm failed to find any glimmer of hope in the latest figures.

“The UK jobs market is continuing its downward spiral, with placements falling for the 11th month in succession and vacancies down across most sectors,” he said.

“The latest survey also reveals that salaries for permanent and temporary hires are falling at record rates. In practice, we believe this is partly a result of employers replacing senior people with lower-level and lower-paid staff.”