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Fresh tech talent in demand next year
The grad life...

By Natasha Lomas

Published: Friday 23 November 2007

The UK economy may be shivering in chill winds from across the pond but demand for IT grads is still strong, a survey has found.

Recent turbulence in the banking sector has not affected graduate hiring plans in the financial services industry, according to a poll conducted by tech grad recruitment site the IT Job Board.

Skills Survey 2007

Find out the exclusive results of this year's silicon.com Skills Survey:

♦  Are CIOs getting less cash?
♦ How the staffing crisis is deepening
♦ How techie salaries are faring
♦ Offshoring still a hot potato
♦  Banks hardest hit by staff crisis
♦ Industry falling out of love with IT grads

The survey of 50 UK organisations found the vast majority (94 per cent) are not planning to change their hiring plans in light of the credit crunch in the banking sector. And more than half (56 per cent) said they are planning to increase the number of grads they hire next year.

Just over a third (36 per cent) said hiring levels will be unchanged next year, while a marginal eight per cent said they plan to decrease hires, according to the recruitment company's survey.

Alex Farrell, director of the company, said in a statement: "The results of this survey confirm our beliefs that it's still a strong sector from an IT perspective and graduates are still very much in demand."

A vote by silicon.com's CIO Jury IT user panel suggests employers are not having trouble recruiting grads with the right skills for their departments - a result which flies in the face of widespread perception of an industry-wide skills crisis.

But another recent survey found the proportion of IT contractors in the FS sector is at its lowest level for more than three years.