Mums home in on contract IT jobs

Boom in freelance consultants benefits women with children

After years of seeing programming jobs outsourced to India, hard-pressed IT consultants face a new competitive threat which comes from - literally - nearer home.

According to PeoplePerHour.com, an online freelance skills market, the number of mothers looking after children at home now winning work in the digital sector has shot up 110 per cent over the past 12 months.

"The IT sector had predominately been seen as male dominated, but these figures show that women are easily a match for men in the sector," said PeoplePerHour.com founder and chief executive Xenios Thrasyvoulou.

Mothers at home working in the digital sector gained the highest rating for quality of work among PeoplePerHour's clientelle, with an average score for female digital workers of five out of five.

The highest increase in mothers-at-home working in the digital sector was in the South East with a 29 per cent increase in joining the site over the past three months, with 13 per cent and 10 per cent respectively from the South West and Midlands.

"Securing contracts from home while looking after children enables these women to use their skills effectively and earn extra money in a difficult economic climate," said Thrasyvoulou.