The Effects of COVID-19 on Candidate Confidence

We all know that we are living in a very interesting and testing time, which has left people and businesses feeling uncertain about the future.

With COVID-19 causing the closure of many physical locations and a significant rise in online activity, shopping and video calls, we sought to understand how the IT market has been affected in the East of England.

“Some realignment will be required, but overall the tech sector will be viewed as part of the solution.“

What did we do?

We asked over 1,000 highly skilled IT specialists what their views were on how lockdown has affected their careers, their confidence, and their outlook on the future. We wanted to establish:

• how many of our respondents had been furloughed,
• the effect of COVID-19 on the future confidence of individuals looking to change roles,
• how easy it will be to move roles or find new contracts in the future and
• what the impact will be on future salary demands.

We expected to find that candidates would be significantly less likely to look for new work in the future and that it would be harder to find a new role within the IT industry. Following above-average wage growth in recent years, we also expected candidates to be pessimistic about the prospects of this continuing.

76% of contractors say they are either more likely to, or will only, consider permanent work in the future.

With an overwhelming response rate, we unveiled some interesting findings about how candidates and contractors are feeling about their futures.