One of the difficulties in contracting is working out a rate. Agency salary surveys should be treated warily as their interests lie in getting the contractor at the lowest price possible. As such it is important to have an up to date objective reference point.
ITJobsWatch is an automated service that indexes current advertised jobs, sorts them according to location and skills, and provides quarterly summaries. Both mean and average full time and contract rates are provided, which are based on the figures advertised. Best of all it covers Ireland as well as the UK.