The continued bounceback of Britain’s banks is behind the surge in demand for IT professionals, according to James Smith, director of IT recruitment at Networkers International.

This week, January’s Monster Employment Index revealed the IT sector saw opportunities increase more than any other sector with 34% annual growth, while Networkers indicated that they expect annual results to be at the “high-end” of market expectations.

Smith told Recruiter: “Our business has been fuelled by the financial markets by both the banking industry and insurance as well. We have been doing a lot of recruitment for those kinds of organisations.

“New projects are kicking off at the banks. In 2009, with the state of the economy, a lot of cuts were made but going into 2010 and now a lot of the banks and insurance houses have started new projects which they haven’t done for the last three or four years.

“Overall, we see continuation of steady growth for contract and permanent staff. The demand for permanent staff remains high and is higher than contract staff. Due to the lack of skills in the permanent market, there will be a shift in terms of growth on the contract front. As clients cannot find those permanent workers, they will get contractors in to work on a shorter-term basis or a project basis.

“Growth is across other areas as well. Public sector work has declined significantly but the take-up has come from either the banking and insurance world or consultancy organisations that have won projects, and that can vary from media to pharmaceutical.”