Contract workers who fall under the category of IT contractors may need to look into seeking permanent positions results from an Irish Computer Society (ICS) survey come to pass.
A survey completed by the ICS in late 2009 found that half of respondents expected their 2010 IT budgets to be lower than the 2009 spend on IT. Respondents were mainly from the private sector in both IT and non-IT industries and the public sector.
According to the ICS survey findings, budgets are expected to fall by up to 30% in a quarter of organisations surveyed. The main area that those surveyed expected to reduce their IT spending was contractor salaries (42% of respondents) while new staff recruitment was a factor for one on four.

The future is positive for the mobile/wireless applications area. These are to be investigated by one in seven companies and piloted by 4%. 12% of those surveyed plan to implement mobile/wireless applications in their enterprise while an additional 20% will maintain existing applications. 10% plan to roll extend initiatives in this area.
As regards use of social networking, 60% of respondents said they had no plans for it in their enterprise, 11% will investigate it and 9% plan to pilot it, while just 5% will pilot it. 13% of those surveyed plan to maintain their social networking presence, while just 2% will roll back on it.