[samsonradu]

One thing worth mentioning for EU’s IT industry is that there are large sectors like government which need IT services but can only work with contractors as hiring is not legally possible or extremely tedious. This means contractors get access to a larger market.

[wyozi]

This also results in a relatively large number of IT consulting companies, many of which specialize in public sector service bidding. Certain large consultancies winning most of the bids and then under-delivering has pretty much become a meme at this point.

[negamax]

That only causes Accenture etc. body shops to thrive in EU market. EU as a market is very government policy driven. Government contracts are lucrative but typical body shop pays 1:10 as compared to what they are paid. And then the "employee" also pays high taxes on the income. Not sure what can change it. May be more US companies should get contractor friendly in EU markets?

[samsonradu]

1:10 is a little harsh, quite far from the norm. From my experience body shops subcontracting freelancers pay 80-90% of the daily rate (BENELUX area)