The end of January saw the UK economy grow for the first time in six quarters, signalling what is being dubbed the end of the recession. In a poll conducted by the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 45% of the 157 firms surveyed expect conditions to improve and 36% of them have started recruiting in the past year.

The question on our minds is how will this affect the IT job market specifically?

The views are mixed and opinions divided.

On the one hand, organisations are still only just catching their breath from the hard knock of the recession to their revenues and to their staffing. Analysts fear that IT professionals won’t feel the effects of the upturn immediately.

The word from one IT recruitment specialist is that although organisations are still recruiting, they are exercising a high degree of caution and most organisations are waiting to see if the economy will dip again before investing fully into re-staffing.

On the other hand, one IT specialist believes that something is brewing; “My unemployed colleagues are reporting an increase in job postings and interviews. They’ve said the IT job market has significantly improved over 6 months ago…”

So, some organisations are raring to go and this will mean important decisions being made with respect to the directions of their IT requirements and whether to build up their in-house IT resources or outsource.

Although at first glance it seems more likely that companies will look to rebuilding their own internal teams, analysts have predicted that executive eyes will be casting elsewhere to boost recovery. This is evident in a statement given by Debra Logan, vice president at Gartner:

“Over the next two years, business demand for IT-driven growth and innovation will outstrip the supply of qualified people to fulfil job roles and, as a result, traditional IT tasks are moving outside the IT department”.

What does this mean for IT Job seekers?
Will we all be rolling in it, if not by the end of the quarter, then in the near future?

The Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s 2009 report says yes. It showed that the increase in demand for both permanent IT jobs and IT contract jobs has grown significantly. Out of all the sectors analysed, IT led the way for permanent roles, and came second only to secretarial work for temporary positions. This is not surprising considering the movement in the financial sector in anticipation of economic upturn, with Deutsche Bank announcing a major deal with SAP last month.

Despite talks of spending cuts, even the government looks to continue with its support of the IT bandwagon through the Digital Britain and the Operational Efficiency Programme and the Promotion of Digital Participation. It looks unlikely that the public sector will be a source of jobs for IT professionals in the coming year. However, such ventures guarantee stability in demand for IT professionals, if not with the public sector per se, then with the private companies working in these initiatives.

So what does this all mean?

It would appear that although it may take some time for the IT market in terms of recruitment to recover completely, wounds are definitely being licked and bandages applied. Organisations are recognising the need to put the recession behind them and IT professionals are on the road back to being the supermen and women of the business world.

Luckily, The IT Job Board is pleased to announce that we are the largest carrier of IT jobs in the UK with over 23,000 IT jobs online, so for those of you out there hoping to take the next step, search and apply here.

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Source: www.theitjobboard.co.uk

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Dubai was once held as the world’s moneymaking Mecca with thousands of Brits, including many IT professionals, flocking to this oasis in the desert, relishing in the absence of the tax burden back home.

So the recent economic turbulence has come as a bombshell sending shock waves around the world. Back in October the Financial Times reported that many expatriates were losing their jobs while property construction slowed to a standstill amid mounting debt and waning demand.

How does this impact Brain Drain in the UK IT industry? Are people content resting on their British laurels? And if so, how will the return of expats affect an already saturated IT job market?

The IT Job Board spoke to Vik Nanda, Team Leader of IT recruitment consultancy Pathway in Dubai to find out what’s really happening in the UAE’s most popular region.

‘In the first half of 2009 Dubai was suffering along with the rest of the world, with the number of jobs fast decreasing. This continued until July/August when things slowly started to pick up.’

So has the situation changed?

‘Now, obviously recruiters are still cautious given that we have just witnessed one of the worst recessions since records began, it would be foolish not to be. But businesses are still winning new contracts and there are projects that still need to be finished. So if companies need IT professionals they are going to have to hire. And that’s what they are doing.’

Positive news then for IT professionals considering a change. When asked what advice he would give to IT candidates considering a move to Dubai he replied,

‘I can only give my personal opinion but now seems as good a time as any. The market is still strong, there’s plenty of sun and I love it.’

Although Dubai has felt the effects of the economic crisis it could be possible that the situation has been slightly exaggerated in the media. Yet even if this is not an elaboration it seems the IT industry has not been hurt as badly as other sectors. Construction, property and even tourism industries are bearing the brunt of the recent economic unrest.

But despite the recent bailout by neighbouring Abu Dhabi, there have been plenty of positive predictions for 2010 across most industries both in Dubai and here at home. The Financial Times reported on Monday that economists are describing a very optimistic outlook for Dubai in 2010 with their financial reserves poised to help the region to continue to develop. And with the opening of the world’s tallest tower this week, re-named Burj Khalifa, following the financial rescue, it seems Dubai is keen to show the world it hasn’t lost its sparkle.

What’s your opinion on the latest economic situation? Were you considering moving abroad for work? Or perhaps you think the grass is always greener and there’s no place like home? Leave a comment or write your own IT blog.

For all the IT professionals out there quite happy staying on home ground, don’t forget to visit www.theitjobboard.co.uk to find your next IT job.

As 2009 draws to a close, The IT Job Board team reflects on the year gone by and begin to question what lies in store for the IT industry in 2010. The latest survey results shed some light on what’s tipped to be hot and what’s not for the year ahead.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

The UK unemployment level reached a record high both in the UK and Europe this year and there is no doubt that IT departments across the country have suffered the effects of this. 82% of survey respondents informed us that the recession has affected their department over the past 12 months.

So it has been a tough year in the IT industry but how have things changed and what can we expect in 2010?

The Ghost of Christmas Present

Things are starting to look up with the BBC, among others, reporting that the unemployment rate has slowed and we seem to be on the road to recovery. Recent statistics in the media do give a very positive indication for IT jobs in the New Year, however our survey results paint a mixed picture.

71% of respondents revealed that they do not think the recession is over for the IT industry, and 44% of our survey base stated that they do not envisage the end of the downturn until 2011.

But are IT professionals being realistic or pessimistic?

The Ghost of Christmas Future

Perhaps IT professionals are airing on the side of caution given the events of the past year or so. And no matter how positive the numbers are looking, until you actually land your next job and sign on the dotted line, the numbers mean nothing.

However, The IT Job Board has noticed a dramatic increase in the average number of IT jobs on site over the past few months:

Sept – 8,409
Oct – 11,611
Nov 13,753
Dec – over 17,000

Peter Healey, Sales Director at The IT Job Board said:

“I believe that next year the finance sector will really pick up. Banking was the first to be hit during the recession, but it will also be the first to recover, and it will offer a lot of opportunity in terms of IT recruitment.”

Our survey also revealed certain skills that are expected to be in high demand in the coming year. One third of those surveyed selected .net as one of the hottest skills for 2010; 29% chose SAP and 26% voted for Java.

Healey believes that IT pros should look to adopt skills in the web services arena, and advised: “As we continue to get to grips with social and business networking, Web 2.0 skills will be critical, for example .net and Java.”

So the future is looking much brighter for IT jobs in 2010. For all the latest vacancies, visit The IT Job Board.

Last month over 1,500 employees of the IT services company Fujitsu voted in favour of taking strike action against the organisation following the revelation of plans to cuts jobs, pay and pensions. All are members of the union Unite, which claims that for some, the proposal could translate to a 20% reduction in pension value.

But is this fast becoming the norm in the IT sector or is this affecting some areas of the industry more than others? While some are working overtime to secure their place on the payroll, others are fed up with being forced to accept sub-standard working conditions and are resorting to strike action. The IT Job Board conducted some research to determine the extent to which IT salaries and benefits of IT professionals has been affected by the credit crunch.

IT Job Salaries

IT Jobs Watch statistics reveal an increase in average pay for IT professionals across the board in the UK. Looking at the salaries for Java Engineering jobs, Senior C++ jobs or Lead Test Analyst jobs as examples, they’re all up over 100% year on year. But could this mean that businesses are willing to pay more for the knowledge and experience of a highly skilled IT professional? Or could it be a reflection of growing confidence within a stabilising market and an optimistic outlook for 2010?

Was this the same story for the IT professionals that took part in our survey?
A mere 17.8% of our survey base informed us that their circumstances had not been affected by the market conditions of the past year. Yet a significant number (40.2%) said their salaries have been frozen and 7.5% have even had to accept a pay cut. A quarter of IT professionals in our survey had suffered redundancies (25.2%) so it seems wage freezes and pay cuts are the lesser evils given the circumstances.

Where redundancies, pay cuts and wage freezes have occurred, over 80% revealed that staff members at all levels were hit, indicating a reduction in the size of the workforce as a whole rather than chopping those at the top of the scale to make a quick saving.

Benefits of IT Professionals

Many IT professionals stated that additional benefits such as bonus pay have been revoked. But this is probably an understandable cut to make under the circumstances. There has also been anecdotal evidence that certain other benefits including payments in kind such as free lunches provided by the company have been scrapped. This may only seem like a nice-to-have but the cost of this can amount to in excess of £1,000 a year. Perhaps I’ll think twice before popping out for a spot of lunch in future.

The next step in IT

As we approach the last month of the year, this is a common time to start re-evaluating your position, your pay and your career progression. Many decide to rethink their situation and start contemplating a new challenge for the New Year. Yet although most of us are eagerly awaiting the holidays and dread starting the job seeking process until after the festivities have passed, getting a head-start on your job hunt is never a bad idea. Having said that, many companies’ budgets are renewed in January and this coupled with positive forecasts for the economy in 2010, could mean the New Year jobs wave will counterbalance the number of applicants. Fortunately, IT seems to be a thriving area that has not been as badly hit as some other industry sectors, so if you are considering a career move, there’s no time like the present.
Visit the IT Job Board for all the latest IT jobs.

Nearly four and a half years ago London was immersed in celebrations at the announcement that the next Olympic games would take place in the UK’s capital. But with all the bad press surrounding the inflated budget for the prestigious event, the British people were soon to sober from the inaugural Olympic fever that swept the nation.

So how much has the projected cost risen to and what percentage of this is needed for IT and technology? Are IT professionals benefiting from a new source of jobs and will this event lead to long term opportunities in the IT recruitment sector?

Technology and the Olympics

With the Beijing Olympics a massive success, how are we going to measure up for London 2012? Will we be able to follow in their footsteps or will we let the side down?

If last year’s Olympics are anything to go by, we’ve certainly got our work cut out.

China organised wireless information systems for journalists; radio frequency identification technology for ticket verification (RFID); commentator information systems; worldwide TV coverage (including HD and 38 million online video streams) and Digital Ignition Control Systems to control any time lag between fireworks displays in the various venues. Inconceivably, organisers of the Beijing Olympics even attempted to control the weather with technology by sending missiles soaring into the sky to prevent rain.

And that’s not to mention the unforgettable opening ceremony that illuminated the floor of the Bird’s Nest as performers took to the stage and wowed us with over 44,000 LEDs in the infamous scroll alone.

So what about London 2012?

ZDNet.co.uk, stated that the IT infrastructure in London will consist of more than 900 servers, 8,000 PCs and 1,000 network and security devices. And these numbers have all been lowered through the planned use of green IT systems such as virtualisation to reduce the number of servers needed and control costs. As the system will link more than 94 venues across the UK as well as the Olympic Village itself, it is vital that this is sound to ensure the event runs smoothly.

An article on Silicon.com has claimed that nearly £7billion pounds will be pushed through the technology sector as part of the grand event. This includes a projected budget of £204m for information systems, £63m for telecommunications and £12.5m for Internet applications allocated by The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog).

Potential Problems

Apart from the projected cost of this event being estimated at over £20bn (ten times the original amount), there is another crucial matter to be considered.

At this year’s InfoSecurity conference David Blunkett raised this issue of IT security at London 2012. There are fears that the information systems used in the Olympics could be used as an easy target and could pose a real threat to national security. Although physical security measures are being put in place, some fear that weaknesses in the Olympic IS may be overlooked and could easily be exploited. An article on Inforsecurity-magazine.com reported that security staff in China’s capital dealt with up to 12 million security alerts every day. This is no easy task and an area where resources should definitely not be pulled. But with the budget already stretched, how can we be reassured about such an important issue?

Yet ZDNet.co.uk has claimed that Locog is even calling for IT volunteers for the occasion. Surely an event of this scale that will be watched worldwide should not be calling for volunteers? But with so much money being poured into the Olympic fund and so many professionals working on the project, why are we not seeing a huge increase in the number of jobs? Wasn’t one of the primary reasons for hosting the games to boost the economy both in terms of tourism and new job opportunities along with the regeneration of a deprived area of London? According to the BCS, much of the hardware deployed in such an event, although recyclable, seems to ‘disappear’ once the games are over and therefore no revenue is generated from this area.

London and the Olympics

Computer Weekly recently reported that the Olympic IS team is expected to grow between 10 and 50% each year leading up to the games and ZDNet reported back in 2007 that there had been an increase in the number of IT contractors working on the Olympic site year on year. However there have been no recent reports about a rise in new Olympic IT jobs. So it seems the capital being poured into the games is not being translated into jobs to the extent that was hoped, at least not in the short term. Having said that, the reference to the Olympic IS team must be referring to the main core of the Information Services team and does not take into account all third parties involved responsible for advertising, sponsorship and any other areas of the event itself.

So let’s hope it benefits the economy in other ways. But what about the long term, will this event create more opportunities in the world of IT for years to come or is this much ado about nothing?

It is quite possible that these estimates of IT staff have been underestimated in the same way the initial figures in the budget were. According to ZDNet Asia, in Beijing over 3,500 technology workers used the IT infrastructure to enable the event to run smoothly.

Another important factor to consider is that it is impossible to accurately estimate the number of jobs that have been created and will be created as a result of the Olympics 2012 taking place in London. This is due to the volume of third party companies involved in the even as a whole, which is inevitable given the scale of the event. In addition to the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA), the Home Office and the Locog are also involved. To give you an idea, there are currently 144 suppliers listed on the ODA website for the Olympic stadium alone. There is not one single body recording the number of jobs offered by each company, contractor or supplier meaning this may not even be measured.

What can we expect?

Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that London 2012 will lead to more jobs in the IT sector either in the short term or the long term. However what is clear is that this event will boost the tourism industry in Britain and will ultimately be underpinned by a solid, advanced, IT system and infrastructure. But in terms of dazzling us with a technology-fuelled performance, will London be able to compete with China? We will just have to wait and see.

In 2007 40% of the UK’s GDP came from the financial services sector. When the credit crisis hit there was a huge uproar, with many people pointing the finger in the direction of the finance sector. It was thought that the Investment bankers’ greed and self-gratifying nature was the root cause of the credit crisis. If the government had invested funds more evenly across the different sectors, could it be that the credit crunch could have been avoided, or at least been less severe?

In June 2009 Chancellor Alistair Darling announced that the Government has developed a £750 million Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) to advance the UK’s basic capabilities for industrial innovation, job creation and growth in a highly competitive economy. Out of the £750 million SIF, only £50 million is being apportioned to the Technology Strategy Board to invest in technological innovation. Is the government missing a trick here with the allocation of this budget? Should a larger proportion of the budget be invested into the IT sector?

The IT Job Board carried out some research to discover how much the IT sector actually contributes to the UK economy.

IT’s worth it

In 2007 the UK ranked 6th in the list of countries by GDP by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), generating just short of $2.7 billion. However, Office for National statistics (ONS) estimate that the computer services sector contributes only 3% to the UK economy annually. Yet according to MicroScope.co.uk IT and Telecommunications employ approximately 1.5 million people within the UK and there have recently been reports that the IT industry will help to pull the UK out of the recession. So could we not be making more of the IT sector in the UK?

Within the IT sector, there is one area in particular that has been booming in recent years.

As mentioned in an article on the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts website (NESTA), the video games sector in the UK contributes £1 billion to GDP, more than the music and film industry combined.  An article on guardian.co.uk states that the global games market is worth £18bn with projected growth at a compound annual rate of 10.3% between 2008 and 2012. Therefore is this an area the UK could look to develop further?

Britain is currently the fourth biggest game producer in the world. An article on Ukinvest.gov.uk states that the UK is home to around 280 games companies and employs around 10,000 staff in creative positions.

An article published in September 2009 by BBC.co.uk, explains that the games industry generates £20 million a year for Scotland alone and employs over 700 people. Additionally, Dundee is home to one of the games’ market leaders Realtime Worlds, the company that developed Grand Theft Auto and Lemmings.

Richard Wilson head of TIGA, the industry body for the games industry, stated that the games industry is a highly successful and growing economic sector with great potential. Moreover, in Scotland, 36 per cent of the games industry’s revenue is actually generated from exports, this illustrates the level of importance the games industry has on the country and how necessary it is to protect this.

Problem emerging…

Ukinvest.gov.uk reported that globally the UK was ranked as the third largest producer of computer games, positioned just behind the United States and Japan until 2006 when it dropped to fourth place, having been overtaken by Canada. In addition to this, NESTA declared in a press release that the UK is still expected to fall another two places in the ranking by 2010. This is due, in part, to the increase of Brain Drain in the UK IT industry, meaning Britain is losing the creativity and talent of its developers that are moving to countries where the games industry receives generous subsides.

TIGA have argued that unless the sector receives help from the UK and Scottish governments the games industry could struggle. Wilson explained that the lack of tax breaks for the industry puts Scotland’s firms at a serious competitive disadvantage, the same could also be said for the UK as a whole. Interesting research from NESTA revealed that investment in privately held games companies has dropped by 60% since 2008.

Wilson explains further that without government intervention, the UK games industry faces serious challenges such as: skills shortages, brain drain and a competitive environment characterised by overseas governments giving substantial assistance to their games industries.

Potential solution…

TIGA have advised/believe that the UK government should impose tax breaks similar to those given to firms in France and Canada, as they believe this will help UK firms to remain competitive, as tax breaks can amount to up to 37 per cent of a game’s production costs. This would boost the economy, reduce brain drain thus leading to more jobs in this area of IT.

TIGA has posed a plausible solution to boosting the UK games industry, however, what are the potential ramifications of this solution to our economy as a whole? It could be that introducing tax breaks to one economic sector, could be detrimental to the success of another.

Is there hope?

An article by Computer weekly.com covered a speech by the new culture secretary Ben Bradshaw, where he stated “We do recognise the importance of the video games industry to the British economy. Research and development tax credits are available for the industry, and we are looking at introducing further tax breaks”.

So there is light at the end of the tunnel for the UK games industry. But what else can be done to enhance the development of this sector and further contribute to the UK economy? Are there also others areas of IT that are developing or that we could exploit further for the benefit of the UK economy?