2008: Crunch time for IT jobs?

The worldwide credit crunch could be starting to impact on IT jobs but prospects for a new year job change look good going into 2008.

While demand for tech workers to fill vacancies is still strong, one sector where there has been some softening is banking, according to recruitment consultancy and outsourcing service provider Harvey Nash.

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Simon Wassall, European managing director of Harvey Nash, told silicon.com: "Generally the demand levels that we've seen from some of the banking sector has been lower than it has been over the last 12/24 months."

But talk of a wider economic slowdown is not putting companies off hiring tech staff going into the new year, said Wassall, who added there is "still a skills shortage" in IT.

Stuart Packham, a director at recruitment consultancy Michael Page Technology, agrees. "Job flow is still very good. The industry is still busy and there are no signs of it slowing down," he told silicon.com, adding: "I'd certainly say we've seen no direct impact on job numbers in it from the economic climate as such."

He added: "Candidate flow is very good. We've got lots of candidates who were onto us on 2 January."

Despite "all the talk of a Christmas slowdown", Packham said there hasn't been any slowdown in the retail sector, or elsewhere. "We're doing lots of recruitment in the commercial and FMCG sectors, and they're all busy," he added. "Everyone we're talking to at the moment is talking about strong hiring plans for this year."

Packham said: "Ultimately there's bound to be some slowdown in [FS] recruitment but we've not seen a direct impact this year."