Except business services, one-person suppliers of IT have been hit harder by the recession than their counterparts in any other major sector that uses freelancers.
Almost 70% of members of the PCG, the freelancers’ trade group, who work in computing said IT contracts had been harder to come by since the recession began.
While engineers were almost as affected – 60% said new contracts were down, only business services freelancers, offering tax and legal aid, fared worse than those in IT.
Freelancers in financial services, journalism, creative roles, PR/publicity and other fields, such as construction, all reported less of a fall out from the recession.
Publicity freelancers were the most unscathed, given that only a quarter felt that their workload had suffered from the weak economy, and half said it hadn’t.
IT contractors offer a gloomy contrast – just 16% said that their pipeline of contracts had not dried up since January, when the recession began, while most said it had.
The PCG, which surveyed 1600 freelancers for National Freelancers Day, suggested most IT freelancers have proved anything but recession-proof. A spokesperson said:
“Due to the fact that IT contractors tend to work for big clients, such as financial institutions and government departments, it is more likely that in the recession they will shed contractors as a savings exercise.”
“There is a greater propensity for big business and large departments to outsource and look for the most efficient way of managing this procurement process.”
One of the IT contractors surveyed said that, unlike some industries, private and public sector jobs in IT were vulnerable to outsourcing, particularly during a recession, but also before and after it.
Source : http://www.contractoruk.com/news/004684.html
