Flexible workers such as IT contractors are "essential" to the maintenance of frontline public services, it has been claimed.

The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has again urged the coalition government to think about long-term reform rather than short-term cuts as it seeks to curb public spending.

This morning (May 24th), the chancellor George Osborne announced that £95 million would be cut from spending on IT, which may mean fewer job opportunities for IT contractors.

But the REC insists that flexible workers can help to save costs as they can be used to respond to peaks and troughs in demand, without requiring substantial benefits or pensions.

"The public sector is going to need ever increasing talent and leadership to transform service provision, [so] limiting the ability of public sector organisations to recruit the talent and capability they need to transform themselves will be self-defeating," said the REC chief executive Kevin Green.