The silicon.com Skills Survey 2004: Contracting is back in fashion

Contracting is once again back in fashion, with more and more permanent staff eyeing up a move to freelancing, according to silicon.com's sixth annual Skills Survey.

From a permanent employee's point of view, it seems, contracting is the place to be. This year's survey showed a drop in the number of people describing themselves as a permanent member of staff who wants to remain so – in 2002, 61.8 per cent didn't want to go freelance, in 2003, it was 69 per cent and this year, the number dropped to 63 per cent.

Dave Pye, MD of Spring Technology Staffing Group, said that he's seen a rise in the number of bigger names opting to use contractors as well as a rise in the length of the average contract position – both of which could be tempting to permanent staff.

In parallel, the number of people who wanted to swap from permanent to contracting work rose – in 2002, 9.7 per cent wanted to make the change; in 2003, that percentage dropped to 7.2 per cent and rose again to 10.8 per cent this year.

Contractors themselves, however, were less certain about their rosy prospects. While the percentage of those who described themselves as a contractor who doesn't want to change their employment status was up – so was the amount of workers who said they wanted to become permanent.

So is it all good news or bad news for the contractors?

Pye told silicon.com that the split attitude towards contracting could be down to uncertainty over the market – and the ever-cynical UK IT worker not quite believing the recovery really is here to stay.

"Some people are not 100 per cent sure the market has picked up. We've seen evidence there's been a growth in the number of contractor positions but not everyone has. People are waiting to see," he said.