Graduates in contracting are facing an increasingly positive jobs market, an expert has claimed.

Mike Hill, chief executive of Graduate Prospects, claimed that the normally-quiet December period has been far more active than usual.

He suggested that the number of immediate vacancies has increased, with "definite signs" that the employment market is improving.

While he acknowledged that there are few vacancies at present, he attributes this to the snow and said that there are indications of green shoots.

Mr Hill suggested that there are still signs of uncertainty but asserted that the private sector will experience a robust rebound during the next 12 months.

"The first group of employees to come out of the recession and to be hired is the graduate population," he claimed.

The situation for graduate IT contractors was recently highlighted by figures published by the Office for National Statistics, which recorded for the last three months of 2009 the smallest quarterly increase in unemployment since spring 2008.