Public sector IT leaders poised to wield jobs axe

Rachel Fielding, Computing, Thursday 6 May 2010 at 16:03:00

Significant numbers of public sector IT workers already jumping ship

Inevitable spending cuts across the public sector are stalling technology
recruitment activity, amid positive signs of an IT resourcing upturn in the
private sector, experts are warning.

Despite a frenzy of recruitment activity for high-end IT roles in the
financial services sector, the massive public sector deficit has meant that the
new government is under immense pressure to cut costs across departments, and IT
recruitment is seen as one area where big potential savings can be made.

The public sector has traditionally been seen as a relative safe-haven for IT
professionals in times of economic woe, with government deals driving
substantial growth for outsourcers in the last year.

But political uncertainty in the run up to the general election combined with
general economic concerns have stalled decision making and prompted public
sector chiefs to identify ways to slash their IT overheads.

Sid Barnes, a director of
Computer People
and Spring Technology
said: ?There?s a lot of fat in the public sector but now there?s simply no room
for that. Demand for IT professionals will go down and we?ll see moves to switch
as many contractors as possible into permanent roles, which are typically half
as expensive as temporary roles.?

New data from the
Office for
National Statistics showed that the public sector recorded 14,000
redundancies across the whole public sector in Q4 2009, a drop of 2,000 on the
previous quarter and the lowest figure since Q1 2009. But it warns that public
sector redundancies are expected to rise in coming years owing to cuts in
government spending.

Alan Rommel, managing director of recruiter Parity Resources, warned that
widespread concern about potential redundancies would also force public sector
IT professionals to jump before they were pushed, with potentially devastating
consequences for online front line public services.

?Budgeting pressures will force attrition in the public sector. We?re seeing
significant numbers of IT professionals jump ship in anticipation of the
inevitable cuts.?

? For more on IT recruitment trends and the frenzy of activity in the City,
see page 4 of next week's Computing magazine [20/05/10].

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2262604/public-sector-jobs-suffer