PRESS RELEASE

Demand for senior-level IT staff has increased despite ongoing uncertainty regarding the economy, specialist IT recruitment consultancy IntaPeople has said.

The firm found that requirements for senior IT positions in August soared by 39% when compared to the previous month. The research took into account IT job titles containing the phrases ‘manager’, ‘head’ and ‘director’.

Stephen Riley, director at IntaPeople, commented:

“While businesses are being relatively cautious with their hiring strategies in light of looming public sector cuts, this has not impacted the recruitment of top-level personnel. Companies clearly feel that IT will play a crucial role in delivering business growth over the next 12 months.

“The trend of taking on senior staff members could also be set to continue as firms start thinking about upgrading their systems from Windows XP, which will no longer be supported by Microsoft in four years’ time.”

The findings compared well against demand for IT ‘administration’ and ‘support’ roles, which fell by 30% over the same period. IntaPeople said that it is not just the uncertain economic environment that is to blame for a reduced number of vacancies, but also a general movement towards outsourcing solutions.

“Firms continue to outsource their IT operations as they examine new ways of reducing their day-to-day costs. The growing popularity of cloud computing, in particular, has meant that certain lower level roles may not be as widely available as they once were,” Riley said.

“In spite of this, we believe that these positions are likely to pick up as companies push ahead with their post-recession plans and as senior staff members begin assembling their own teams.”