IT Contractor Rates in a Weak Economy
Since the economy has weakened, there have been many efforts to give aid to all the high-tech candidates who were laid off from IT jobs. Numerous IT professionals have either been living off of aid provided by the government or have resorted to lower wage IT jobs.
In addition to smaller budgets, due to the abundance of candidates on the IT job market, a supply versus demand affect was created thus lowering IT contract and full-time pay rates and salaries.
The average high-tech professional is making $5-10/hr less than he or she was making a couple of years ago. On a full-time scale, this equates to $10,000 – $20,000. Obviously a significant decrease for anyone.
For those IT professionals who work with IT staffing firms, the rates are down as well. The reason is due to the fact that the client ultimately dictates the bill rates to the IT recruiting firms (based on that number, the IT recruiting company then calculates the pay rate to the IT job seeker).
The good news is the fact that companies are still utilizing IT staffing agencies to fill these needs (although the client pays a premium, they save money in the long run as they’re not responsible for paying overhead costs such as health insurance and unemployment). Therefore, IT professionals have a solid resource to utilize when looking for their next IT job.
However, ever better news will come with an improved economy because as the market increases so do IT contractor pay rates and full-time salaries.