Sixty per cent of business leaders believe their organisations would have difficulty operating if it was not for the help of contractors, according to a new study.

A new PCG study polled 668 businesses leaders and found that 60 per cent said that their businesses need flexible labour.

Fifty five per cent also said that they think freelancers are essential for the UK economy while 73 per cent said the number of opportunities for contractors will either stay the same or increase over the next year.

In addition the poll showed that 63 per cent of freelancers chose long term contracting as a career.

This comes after futurologist Dr James Bellini claimed that contracting will become the standard way of life in the future.

Speaking at the Freelance Lecture on National Freelancers Day he added that the traditional office format will also die off as people choose to work from where they would like to.