Contractor Risk
A reader sent this article, on contractor risk, in response to our article ‘Was it worthwhile becoming a contractor then’. The views of the reader are his own.
One always hears that contractors get greater rewards because they are taking greater risks. Then there’s IR35.
People say that there is a greater likelihood of contractors spending time out of work than there is for permanent staff.
However, this is no longer true.
You could even argue that there are greater risks now in being an employee rather than being a contractor.
The Proof
You don‘t believe me?
I‘ll explain why.
You showed Government figures which showed IT unemployment as being, from memory, around 3.5% – and you said that this figure was IT employees only.
So many IT employees are finding that their jobs are not secure as they thought that they were. In fact many have had to turn to IT contracting to get work.
IBM AS An Example
As an example, IBM announced a while back that they were getting rid of 13,500 IT employees from the USA and Western Europe.
They announced even more recently that they were going to hire an extra 15,000 IT workers in India.
More and more companies are doing this.
And these are all permie jobs that are disappearing – not contracting jobs.
Offshore Outsourcing (and onshore) is hitting IT employees most.
In fact, one could say, it is far safer nowadays to be an IT Contractor, rather than an IT employee.
And you get far more money as well.
For more great advice on your contracting career click on Contractor Career Advice.
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