Stop Moaning IT Contractors
This, telling contractors to stop moaning, was posted by reader Not-A-Contractor and has caused some debate. The views are his own. Here goes.
Contractors should stop moaning about offshore outsourcing and IT Work Permits so much and look at the bigger picture.
The UK is short of IT programmers. They are going to need more and more. Neither the permie of contractor pool is going to be able to grow enough to fill all the positions needed.
Therefore, if UK industry and UK companies are not to miss out then they have to look at other ways of getting that scarce labour.
Their options are to send IT work offshore or to get some of the world’s developers to come here. Either that or lose competitive advantage to the rest of the world.
Helpful Government
Luckily the UK Government has been very helpful, and forward looking, on both counts.
As far as offshore outsourcing is concerned, the Government has said that it won’t interfere in the free market. That’s a good capitalist Government.
They say that offshoring is inevitable. They say, also, that it will give UK companies competitive advantage over companies from other countries that put barriers to them offshoring.
As far as bringing more IT labour to the UK is concerned, the Government have been helpful here too. They introduced different tiers of visas and put IT visas in Tier-1. This means that it will be pretty easy for any IT people to come and look for work in the UK without a work permit.
If one looks at the big picture, this is great news for British companies and for UK plc.
In Competition with IT Contractors
Of course, IT contractors will say that these imported workers will be in competition with them for jobs. They say that they will depress rates.
They are right on both counts.
However, although it would be nice for contractors to find it really easy to find contracts and see their rates soaring through the roof, is it really good for them long term?
Do they want another boom and bust? Do they want to price themselves out of the market?
Surely it would be best to see gently rising rates.
Loads of Jobs for IT Contractors
There are plenty of jobs to go around in the UK for IT contractors.
The future looks bright too.
Surely contractors can see the big picture and can see that they can live side by side with imported IT workers.
After all, there are enough jobs for everybody.
Good for Britain
If British companies can expand through using cheap IT labour that is good for the British economy. There will be a knock on effect for IT contractors.
So, my suggestion would be to UK contractors would be to look at the big picture. They should not just think about themselves all the time.
This will be good for the economies of developing countries. It will, aslos, be good for the UK, and it’s not so bad for contractors.
So, stop moaning.
Who misses out?
