Sharp rise in demand for permanent IT staff, REC jobs report finds

Business analysts are particularly sought-after, according to REC/KPMG research

IT employers are the most active hirers in the UK, according to this month's jobs report from Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG.

The report found that demand for permanent IT staff had risen more rapidly during February than for any other sector, while demand for temporary staff also saw strong growth.

"I think that part of the reason is that there has been a pent-up demand for quality staff in both the permanent and contract market," said Dave Pye, technology executive member at REC.

"Organisations were reluctant to spend until they were able to make out the shape of the recovery, yet they all know that technology will enable them to drive recovery for their own businesses."

The report found that those skills most in demand were business analysts, and staff with PHP and computer-aided design (CAD) knowledge.

For temporary assignments, employers are finding it most difficult to secure people with C++ experience.

"What we're seeing now is the release of this pent-up demand, and a lot of it is actually at the senior end in the form of demand for change managers and business analysts," added Pye.

He added that a problem for businesses is that there are not adequate senior level skills in the UK job market.

"There's not a plethora of business transformation people, the change management people or business analysts, the relatively senior people, and that isn't something you can just magic up over a period of a few months."

And REC has also seen that with such a skills shortage and high demand for IT staff, the organisations that offer the best career prospects and roles are getting their pick of the job market.

"Also the organisations that have an intelligent but speedy process of recruiting people are getting the best people. When things were tough last year, it took four to eight weeks to recruit the right person for a job, now there's more demand and people don't want to wait that long."