IT sector is seeing demand for permanent sales staff

Despite a general drop-off in demand for both permanent and contract IT workers

IT sales jobs are most in demand on permanent side

IT sales staff are among the most in-demand for permanent roles, according to the latest KPMG/REC Recruitment Industry Survey.

There is specific demand for permanent salespeople in enterprise software, IT security and cloud computing, as well as continued demand for net developers and business analysts on both the permanent and contract side.

It is possible that this is the result of a drop-off in growth for the sector, which has caused businesses to ramp up their sales arms.

And with forecasts for growth in the IT sector having been modified downwards by analyst Gartner from 4.1 per cent earlier this year, to 2.9 per cent at the end of August, perhaps companies are beginning to feel the pinch.

Permanent staff placements rose more slowly than they have all year, with growth in temporary billings at an 11-month low.

The market has been largely flat for the past three months, with contractors in particular less in demand. Compared with eight other market verticals it was the second-slowest-growing sector last month after nursing and healthcare.

Despite the slow growth, advertised demand for ICT staff has risen over four consecutive quarters and is now at its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2008.