Wage freezes are the biggest threat to IT contractors finding new opportunities, a major body has claimed.

Frances O'Grady, deputy general secretary of the TUC, has claimed that some employers are exaggerating the need for pay restraint in order to boost their profits.

She said that rising levels of inflation mean that it is only right for both public and private-sector workers to experience pay rises in the next 12 months.

"If staff are not paid properly, then companies will have no-one to buy their goods and services," she explained.

Ms O'Grady warned that IT contractors and others in the public sector have experienced politically motivated attacks from those looking to shrink the state.

She said that this often involves portraying work in this sector as being "paved with gold".

The TUC's general secretary, Brendan Barber, recently reassured workers not to panic over the most recent batch of inflation figures, suggesting that these are likely to fall in line with the target range in due course.