back to article Demand for IT jobs stinks in UK

There's significantly less demand for IT staff in the UK compared to last year according to a job report published today, although the tech sector has still fared better than most. A March job report commissioned by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and accounting firm KPMG indicates the UK's overall job market …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    But.....

    I seem to recall on the BBC somewhere a page that covered job losses and gains. Most of the gains were in the fast-food industry. So take heart - if you can't get a high tech job you can at least go and sell fries. I'll probably see you there (I'll be the one standing next to you in the job queue).

  2. Shingo Tamai
    Thumb Down

    All of this from the recruiters?!?

    The so called "specialists" that can't tell the difference between SQL and SQL server?

    The same recruiters that are mass mailing IT professionals apologising if the position is not relevant and asking them to forward the email to the right people among their colleagues?

    You gotta be kidding me!!!

  3. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Unhappy

    ohhh

    IT temp skill in shortest supply is CNC programmers

    At last a chance for me to get in there.. no wait..... I'm already on 24k/yr and thats pretty much top wage for us CNC guys..... ... can see that attracting lots of top notch clever folks...

    And besides who wants to work in a grubby factory with a bunch of robots? and the people are'nt much better either

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @ Shingo Tamai

    Oh so you mean that the recruiters over in the UK are exactly like most of the recruiters here in the good ole' US of A? In other words almost totally useless, but who will practically break their arms patting themselves on the back when the one in fifty contact comes along that sorta kinda fits the positions they are recruiting for.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Er...

    'Demand for it jobs stinks' suggests that there's a lot of IT jobs around, but nobody wants them.

    Whoopee, I thought, then I came in to the article and realised it's actually the complete opposite (i.e. there's a lot of IT -=staff=- around, but nobody wants them).

    Balls! How am I going to pay my Nigerian handling fees now?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    developers in short supply?

    possibly if you're a recruiter and have no idea what you're doing.

    new languages and technologies can be learned in a few weeks, it's the other skills as a developer your after (sadly lacking in a large number of the "developers" i work with) not someone who knows one language inside and out but can't use it properly to save their lives.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Yep...

    As someone over a certain age, I'm finding it imposable to find any work at the mo, still it gives me plenty of time to use my knowledge and experience...

    Anyone want a list of the recruitment agencies who have cr@p (or no!) network security?

  8. breakfast Silver badge
    Happy

    Green shoots

    We may not be seeing the green shoots of recovery but we are seeing the green shoots of spring all over the place. It's almost as though nature doesn't even care that there is a recession going on.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    IT jobs and recruiters

    Most IT jobs advertised on these recruiting sites are pap anyway. I have never known an industry that advertises for junior positions where you must have qualifications in 50 different languages and technologies, then have 20 years experience is all this stuff. Then they have the gall to pay you just over some dude stacking shelves or something. Come to think of it you probably have a safer career stacking shelves than any of these jobs.

  10. Colin Barfoot
    Boffin

    jobbies

    Where exactly are all these developer jobs or are they just the phoney baloney ones as advertised not too far from here?

    In my experience job agents are bleedin' useless with the rare exception. One once said to me, "I thought that if you had VC then you had VB". Oh how we laughed - well I did.

    At the other end they're not much better. I once had to sift through CV's which were supposed to be relevant. But what surprised me was how many candidates couldn't manage a simple programming task (sort some C strings without using the library).

    And I guess I should say that although I haven't worked in a while I am available. So any employers looking for a C++/Java mobile/server/desktop Windows/Symbian/some Solaris + a whole load of acronyms apps developer that's me.

    @Boris the Cockroach: sounds like you're onto a winner there. Line up a few job offers and barter between them. Supply and Demand.

  11. steogede

    @Shingo Tamai

    >> The so called "specialists" that can't tell the difference between SQL and SQL server?

    As opposed to those who can tell the difference between SQL server and Microsoft SQL Server?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    CNC

    I do NOT count CNC programmers as part of the IT industry!

    CNC programmers are part of the engineering and manufacturing industries.

    Just because someone programs a sequence of simple commands into a machine, it doesn't make that an IT company, or the staff doing that programming as IT staff.

    Put a CNC programmer in front of a PC, or a Linux box, ask them to write a shell script, to create a user account, to write some VB.net program code, to write a SQL query to extra data from a relational database, and I guarantee you they'd be as dead as a doornail.

    They are not IT people.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Question?

    I couldn't tell how technical the jobs were.

    I'm seeing an increase in demand for the type of people who can talk to users and support existing systems, but a huge drop-off for the less technical "project" style people. Companies are trying to retain people who keep the existing systems running, seriously considering extending their lifetimes, and canning the "good times" projects that are supposed to replace them or "improve processes". Even better, there's increasing demand for people who know the cheaper end of the software tools market (i.e. open-source and those close to it). In my area, having "Linux" on your CV is increasingly a good thing as there's several places looking to save money by ditching MS servers (and I've recently been asked about desktops too)

    I hope the market picks up soon though. I'm a lousy fast-food cook and can't bring myself to spit in the burgers ;-)

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I am pleased to be able to report

    that the demand for stinky IT workers seems to be holding up, judging by the pong in this office

  15. Shingo Tamai
    Happy

    @steogede

    >>As opposed to those who can tell the difference between SQL server and Microsoft SQL Server?

    This is a tricky one anyway: "SQL Server" as in the magazine or as in the product from Sybase? :)

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One day...

    ....the only jobs for us serfs will be in fast food outlets..or in factories pushing buttons (pretty much the same thing). Even the local papers (round here anyway) are banging that drum....running stories like "McJobs to the rescue..." Fuck that....I'll grow my own food and set up in some other business myself, even **** ***** and ******* before I sell out to one of those fucking godforsaken places. It's not I think it's beneath me to cook food for others - I just wouldn't want to be responsible for making a single penny for the vipers and thieves who own the large fast food outlets (in the case of Burgerking it's TPG, Goldman Sachs, Bain - All of whom have recently thieved even more money off us all in the form of government bailouts)

  17. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Linux

    RE: RotaCyclic 09:30 GMT

    I do NOT count CNC programmers as part of the IT industry!

    Just because someone programs a sequence of simple commands into a machine, it doesn't make that an IT company, or the staff doing that programming as IT staff.

    That there is fightin talk :+)

    Todays task has been figuring out howto machine 4 sides of a rectangle on a rotating device, while only being able to use 1 datum point for reference and figuring out how far said datum point moves from previous position to new position as the part is rotated, then figuring out the tool positions to machine features onto said rectangle.

    Given in the past I've written Java applications to recieve/send CNC control programs via the serial port, and have a distributed design of the above using a traditional client/server arrangement, I'd much rather debug a multi-threaded server thats having deadlock problems than do CNC stuff

    But since open university qualifications dont seem to count for much with recruiters, guess I'm stuck with CNC stuff

    Boris the Cockroach BSc(hons)(open). Dip.Comp.(open).

    Pinguin... because I can write a Linux shell script too :+)

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We're all screwed anyway.....

    Call me synical, but....

    The big boys (HP, Ericsson, T-Systems - take your pick, there are many) come in with low bids, astound bosses with "low operating costs", TUPE over the employees (at least in good old Blighty), then as soon as is practical outsource the lot to some back-water country that pays peanuts for students fresh out of school with NO experience. Never mind the quality is crap. Never mind no-one understands the business. Its cheaper than most of us.

    They secure the big contract, save money by reducing headcount, get their bonus and fuck the rest of us.

    The only thing that stinks in IT is the board-room beancounters (and that's because they have their heads up someone's arse).

    Not that I am bitter about it of course :-)

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