Permanent staff with IT security skills and enterprise software skills were reported to be in short supply last month.
The ‘Report on Jobs’ by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation for May also found that IT staff with developer skills continued to be in short supply, though in the temporary rather than permanent sector, as was seen in April.
The report is based on a survey of 400 UK recruitment consultants, and as well as asking consultants to name specific skills that in short supply, uses a figure to represent demand in each job sector. A figure below 50 indicates a drop on the previous month.
Permanent IT staff (63.2), as in April, saw the highest growth in demand last month, again behind the demand for executive and professional staff. However, although demand rose for all temporary staff sectors in May, the growth in demand for temporary IT staff (56.4) was lower than five other sectors, including blue collar (ranked highest with 59.8) and engineering (59).
The jobs report also found that the availability of staff to fill permanent vacancies fell slightly last month, the first fall since March 2008. However, the availability of staff to fill temporary vacancies continued to rise at a “moderate” pace, rising for a twenty-sixth consecutive month.
Meanwhile, survey respondents said that there continued to be a rise in starting salaries for candidates placed in permanent jobs, for the seventh month running. The report said that the increase was mainly due to employers looking to attract skilled staff. Although pay for contractors increased for a fifth consecutive month in May, the increase was lower the previous month.
Bernard Brown, partner and head of business services at KPMG, warned that the effects of the public sector recession are becoming increasingly resonant.
“The UK job market recovery continues albeit at a slower pace than in previous months. While demand for staff from the private sector remains strong in some areas, the figures suggest that hiring activity in the public has started to slow down. This doesn’t come as a surprise since the new government has now begun to spell out where the axe will fall,” he said.