Gov figures show IT jobs crisis

polar bears don't

Well the first two key findings of the report are:

- Continued growth in the number of ICT staff in employment, with the number now at its highest level for over seven years.

- Quarter on quarter, the unemployment rate for ICT staff has fallen.

so I guess some people pay for this sort of research because they'd rather have facts than conspiracy theories about johnny foreigner. You just shoo off back to the Daily Mail now.

@Trevor Woolnough : probably it's useless for you...

This research is important for big corporations and govt. Mainly for formulating policies. eg: A govt. with severe shortage on core computer skills may ask universities to increase Computer Engineering seats, or, an undersupply of some emerging tech skills may change some immigration policy.

Companies benefit from this information by being picky or slutty while recruiting a particular skill. Or, decide on how much to spend on various corporate training programs.

Individuals can decide whether to hang on to their skills (java) or learn new ones (sage).

So I wouldn't call this a waste of money.

Paris, coz she keeps here skills updated by practising regularly.

I refuse to call them "consultants"

Those recruitment people are to blame and no they're not "recruitment consultants" any more than bookies are "turf accountants". They are employment agents. I seriously regret ever having put my career in the hands of these fly-by-night shysters.

And just because a job is advertised, doesn't mean the job exists.

Hmmm

If employers weren't so stupid this wouldn't happen. To save themselves money and time, they get agencies to screen candidates. The agencies they employ to hire workers are in my experience, compeltely ignorant about what various skills are and what they mean.

Example, I sent my CV to an agency for a VB programming job. My CV quite clearly stated that I had 4 years experience in all Visual Studio languages including VB.

When I didn't hear back from them, I called to ask why. They didn't know VB stood for Visual Basic and they didn't realise that it was part of Visual Studio.

My friend had the same problem with J2EE. He had J2EE, JavaScript and applet design down on his CV. The agency didn't seem to realise that this meant he could code in Java.

Idiots. A lot of people I know have had similar problems from a variety of agencies. Often this reaches the point of sending in a tailor made CV for each job with a note saying "Please delete the CV from your records if I am not successful". The CV of course is in language a baby can understand. Even this doesn't always get them to open their eyes..!

It's the only way forward with many agencies and a shocking state of affairs.

"And just because a job is advertised, doesn't mean the job exists"

Too true!

Average wages over £30000?

I remember seeing a CompuTeach advert saying the average earnings in IT is over £30k is that still true?

IT employment is a mess

"The ten skills most often requested by employers are SQL, C, C#, .NET, SQL SVR, Java, Oracle, ASP, C++ and Unix"

Yes and they want them all from the same person for one job. At a low wage. 2 years experience minimum.

The IT industry is a horrible place to break into, especially with regards to programming. The range of skills needed are obscene and no one is willing to train people. When I was job hunting and narrowing searches down to junior or trainee positions. You'd almost never see real trainee jobs. You'd see jobs asking for experienced people but they don't want to pay decent wages for it.

Offer on the job training, focus on getting specialised people (someone who can do beautiful HTML and CSS may produce horrible PHP) rather than expecting job applicants to be all round gurus and pay wages that reflect the level of skill. Someone who can code well in 10 languages shouldn't have the same entry level wage as someone who has standard MS Office skills.

Saving money using IT

Not everyone is looking backwards. Where I am the shake-up of the company being caused by the recession is actually a driver for junking all the old legacy apps and using IT to improve their processes and save money. I guess they're planning the downturn to last longer than a few months.

Though whether they actually save money is another matter. :-)

re IT employment

All this will come to bite the UK IT sector in arse in years to come as no one will have the relevant skills to do the job due all the entry level jobs been sent to countries like India.

SQL, C, C++ and UNIX

I always knew there was a benefit to being "old skool".

Vive la UNIX! Vive le C!

We're not going anywhere...

C# and .NET

Don't they realise ...

I spent ages telling someone in detail about my C# experience and they asked "yes, but what about .NET?" Where to these people COME from?

I felt like I'd spent fifteen minutes talking to a bucket of rice pudding.

... and my point is

that people who work in IT know whats it like. To say that the UK IT unemployment rate has fallen is total rubbish. Now that Alaister Darling, he knows what hes talking about...

well

I know SFA and I'm on above average earnings. Sod programming and all that bollocks.

No Crisis here, much like no Mountains!, just lots of pot holes

the problem with Agnecys and cv;'s is you have to effectivly write x2 cv's in one document.

1st is written with management speak gobboldygook catchy wording

2nd is written as a keyword catcher for the agency software to pick up and post your cv into the relavent vacancys.

the problem with this is that your cv suddenly becomes exceedingly long.

Some companys get put out by the fact your cv is over 8 pages long.

Some others are impressed by the depth of information and how well presented it is.

So its hit and miss on the job application front.

also, 90% of the UK IT workforce is made of Non UK born workers, which trashes anychance of UK nationals getting or staying in IT, as we are all undercut by all the foreign workers offering to work here for peanuts or curry and chips.

the immigration office needs seriously to be upgraded and boosted in staff to deal effectivly with all the surplus non UK nationals stealing the british jobs.

Mines the one with the pocketfull of Euros and ferry tickets....

Not another rant about jobs being stollen by the mafia

I'm one of the 90% non UK born IT workers and I haven't undercut by price anyone so far. I started with one of the highest salaries in my company and I managed to constantly get higher than average raises.

Don't worry the moment I will find out that one of my colleagues with the same skill set level earns a lot more than me I will immediately apply for another job.

Please to be repeating

All of your job is belonging to us! Your manager is being too stupid to care!

AC 17.06

I bet the non-UK nationals can at least spell properly. Cheers for that Alf Garnett.