Contractors should educate themselves in "private sector language", one expert has said.

Mark Staniland, managing director of career transition services at Hays, has said that those used to working in the public sector need to adjust their goals and ways of thinking in order to focus on the end product of their work.

"The private sector does not encourage cutting corners but it does measure success on the end product. It's advisable for candidates to adjust their use of jargon accordingly," he explained.

Meanwhile, the Reed Job Index found there was a sustained return to growth across the private sector but in contrast the public sector rose to little more than half of the base level which was set in December 2009.

This comes after Tony Roy, president of CareerBuilder EMEA, has said that within and increasingly competitive jobs market, contractors need to be able to stand out and one way of doing so is by being creative during the application process.