Is the PHP contractor market in the UK being affected by the recession?

Question

Please comment if you are a UK-based freelance PHP developer. Are there just less contracts around because its December or will PHP developers feel the crunch?

Answer 1

From what I've seen it's nothing language specific, it's everything, but there was definitely a slowdown last christmas period anyway and I think we'll have to wait until the traditionally busy times of jan-feb before we can separate the christmas effect from the recession effect.

fwiw many many agents have told me contracts are going south these days, but it's not universal and some have suggested that contracts are actually increased at growing companies because it's that much easier a commitment for them to shed if push comes to shove.

Answer 2

Are there just less contracts around because its December[?]

No.

... or will PHP developers feel the crunch?

Yes. The way I've found things (as a freelance web developer) is most companies I have worked for use their marketing budgets for site development. I'm sure this varies from company to company but the first cutbacks most medium-sized companies have made is the marketing budget.

Those who can will do as much as they can in-house and those that can't have either opted for a much scaled back version of a project or done without it at all.

And yes, this as annakata says, this isn't limited to PHP. All out-sourcing appears to be affected in the same way.

Answer 3

PHP seems to be on the grow, if anything. It's not sharp growth, but a lot of startups are using it to quickly put something together and get their work out there.

Interestingly, Java seems to be on moderate decline, given that the banking and finance sectors are no longer hiring many contractors.

However, I think the average contract rate is down 10-15% across the board. Some of the more outlandish rates are no longer available.

Answer 4

The ITJobsWatch.co.uk's PHP page suggests that rates have been sliding since at least July and even all year if you look at hourly rates. This would suggest that there is more to it than just the December effect. On the plus side demand as a percentage of all programming languages is up which suggests that PHP may not be suffering as much as other skill sets.

Answer 5

Interesting question.

As I see it, there is a strong argument that all IT related work is being affected by the economic climate, however, not necessarily in ways you may imagine. (Please bear in mind that I have no specific metrics to base my ideas on, just a basic grasp of economic theory and the perceived panic effect in many businesses.)

Development effort for things like website redesign may be hit hardest. As has been stated already, marketing budgets are fickle things - if a marketing department is in a position that allows it to place expensive web development on hold then it may do so to save those all-important budget dollars (Pounds/Yen/Euros). However, my experience with marketing people is that they may not be entirely rational when it comes to priorities. What you or I might deem as an extravagance can often be seen as essential by marketers.

In more general development, the situation is more volatile. While it may be seen that excessive developer headcount is an area for potential cost savings, it must be weighed against the potential cost benefits of the end-product, i.e. software that allows other business areas to make efficiencies and potentially save much more money than the lay-off of a few developers.

I'm going to stop now, since I'm not too sure how much sense I'm making. Hopefully I've shown that there isn't a simple answer to this question and it all depends on your local situation.

Answer 6

From the usual 10 pages of php contract on Jobsite there are now less than one page.