Gov figures show IT jobs crisis

IT and telecoms jobs are starting to feel the pinch of the recession.

Although the total number of people working in IT and telecoms is the highest for seven years and demand is up compared to last quarter, there has been a big fall in advertised positions.

Permanent job adverts are down 24 per cent and ads for contractor jobs are down 27 per cent. But there were still 98,000 advertised permanent posts and 23,000 contractor jobs advertised in the period.

The quarterly research from e-skills also found business confidence dropped in the last quarter of 2008 and company liquidations increased. Nevertheless, the sector's unemployment rate fell from last quarter.

The ten skills most often requested by employers are SQL, C, C#, .NET, SQL SVR, Java, Oracle, ASP, C++ and Unix. Four areas seem to be resisting the credit crisis and showed some growth in the third and fourth quarters of last year: WAP, COM, Active X and Sage.

The jobs which employers find hardest to fill are systems development, IT/Telecoms management, programming and systems design.

Researchers also reckon that there was increased spending on software and hardware meaning higher tech investment since the first quarter of 2008.

The survey found that although advertised salaries have fallen for the last five quarters, actual pay awards for those in work have risen for the last two quarters. More here. ®