Latest findings from The IT Job Board's Skills in Demand report

Online, January 25, 2010 (Newswire.com) - CONTRACT IT JOBS ARE ON THE INCREASE
-Latest findings from The IT Job Board's Skills in Demand report-

• In Q4, 2009 IT Manager and IT support roles represented the highest proportion of jobs on site.
• Software engineering roles almost doubled between November and December 2009.
• Contract positions on the increase, but permanent jobs still make up the majority.

The latest IT Job Board (www.theitjobboard.co.uk) Skills in Demand figures for the last quarter of 2009 indicate that there has been a rapid increase in contract positions advertised on the site, but that permanent jobs continue to remain the majority. Between October 2009 to December 2009, the number of contract positions increased by 43 percent.

The IT Job Board continues to see increases in the number of jobs being advertised on the site, as it predicted towards the end of 2009. Today, there are currently over 19,000 positions available .

The main skills in demand are for IT managers, IT support, project managers, SQL and software engineering, with each one advertising significantly more permanent than contract positions.

The figures corroborate the findings of a survey conducted by The IT Job Board in December 2009, where respondents were asked to offer their predictions on the market for 2010. These highlighted that:

• 58 percent believed that contract jobs would be in greater demand during 2010.
• 34 percent stated that project manager roles would be in demand.

Commenting on the latest Skills in Demand figures, Alex Farrell, managing director of The IT Job Board said: "We have continued to see a steady rise in the number of positions being advertised on the site, both towards the end of 2009, and into January 2010; a real sign that the market is looking up.

"We have also seen an increase in the number of requests to advertise fixed-term contract roles, and it seems that this trend is set to continue. Clearly many businesses see the job board model providing a cost-effective way of doing this."

-Ends-

Notes to editors

About The IT Job Board:
The IT Job Board group of companies was set up in April 2002 in recognition that recruitment in the IT sector was increasingly dominated by the internet.

Online technology enables sophisticated targeting - for example by skill, region or experience - of www.theitjobboard.co.uk's database of 800,000 IT professionals. The IT Job Board always tries to get closer to candidates either via planned content campaigns, or through the use of social networks.

The site also offers employers services such as branded job postings, a featured employer zone, targeted email campaigns and guidance on advertising copy. The managed campaign service filters responses to provide companies with a shortlist of applicants most suitable for the advertised position.

In December 2009, The IT Job Board launched an iPhone application - the first of its kind in the market.

www.theitjobboard.co.uk's clients include The Metropolitan Police, Amnesty International and moneysupermarket.com.

For further information, interviews and photography please contact:
Katrina Suppiah
Publicite Ltd
T: +44 (0)20 8543 6582
E: [email protected]

1 October 2009 to December 2009 (inclusive)
2 As at January 25, 2010
3 129 IT candidates surveyed on 2010 predictions, December 2009