City sees IT recruitment boom

IT recruitment is booming in the City as financial companies increase their investment in technology to support regulatory compliance and security.

Rising demand for IT staff has pushed rates for contract staff to £50 an hour for the first time since 2001.

The upturn, revealed in research by iProfileStats and the Association of Technology Staffing Companies (Atsco), marks the end of the slump that followed the dotcom collapse in 2001.

Atsco predicted that demand for IT staff would continue to rise in 2006, with further pay rises likely, following a year of bumper profits in the City.

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“Pay for City IT contractors has reached a milestone. This year could be the year when the ghosts of the dotcom era are finally laid to rest and IT pay in the City tops the £54-per-hour record set during the height of the boom,” said Atsco chief executive Anne Swain.

Rates in the finance sector last reached £50 in June 2001. Rates reached a record average of £54 an hour during the dotcom boom in December 2000, but plummeted to less than £35 an hour as the market bottomed out during 2002.