Contractors with skills in key strategic, technical and engineering are the ones that will be most highly sought after in the coming months.
This is according to the latest Jobs Outlook report for August 2014 from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), which shows 82 per cent of clients use contractors to get hold of people with key strategic skills to help in the short term.
A total of 600 employers were surveyed for the Jobs Outlook report in terms of their hiring intentions over the next year and for the next 12 months. These respondents covered a wide spectrum of businesses, from the public, private and non-profit sectors. They also covered a large variety of industries and came from organisations of varying sizes.
What's more, these contractors will continue to be sought after as one in four firms said that they believe there will be a shortage in the engineering and technical sector. Adding to this, they are worried about whether or not there are people with professional and managerial skills that they can bring in.
REC found that 47 per cent believe they will increase the levels of temporary staff that they intend to employ over the next three months. Meanwhile, 44 per cent say that they want to increase the number of contractors that they have over the next four to 12 months.
All of this is good news for people who are interested in becoming a contractor or those already working under an umbrella company for contractors. An increase in demand for temporary staff means that umbrella companies will see a greater number of temporary jobs coming in, which can then be assigned to an appropriate worker.
Some companies are already reaching capacity in their current workforce and will either have to take on more permanent staff or hire contractors more regularly in the short term depending on how steady an increase they expect to have. Thirty-five per cent of respondents to the survey said they have no spare capacity within their current staff levels should they find that demand for their services increases.
Speaking about the results, chief executive officer for ContractorCalculator Dave Chaplin said: “The latest JobsOutlook highlights once again the value of the contracting sector to UK plc.
“Contractors are not disguised employees, but a valuable resource of strategic skills that are called upon on an as needed basis by clients who don’t need or can’t afford these skills full-time.”
It was found that larger businesses were the ones most likely to bring in contractors. However, there are an increasing number of small and medium-sized businesses who have said they are intending to hire despite the fact that they may find challenges in terms of finding the right candidates.
An increase in demand may also give contractors the chance to try to up their rates, particularly as the years following the economic downturn has seen them having to reduce the amount of money they charge. Figures from the Office for National Statistics recently showed that the average income for people who are self employed has fallen by 22 per cent since the financial year from 2008 to 2009 up until 2014.
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