Ask HN: Are UK Contract rates going down?

Has anyone seen the UK contract market rates in a bad state? Despite roaring inflation, rates are deflating. Looking at Java as an example: https://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/contracts/uk/java.do average rates a going down now for some reason. We were hiring recently and loads of poor-quality engineers showed up and our rates are at the higher end of the scale. Almost like the good engineers have left the market or were hoovered up.