Job prospects for IT contractors appear to have taken a blow as reports suggest that government cuts could see more than 1.3 million positions disappear.

According to the Guardian, leaked Treasury figures indicate that the government's cuts will see the loss of 120,000 jobs from the public sector each year for the next five years.

In addition, the impact of reduced public spending will see 140,000 private sector roles lost every 12 months over the same five-year period.

The government has claimed that economic growth during this period will create an additional 2.5 million jobs.

Reacting to the news, the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told the BBC that Britain was likely to see a return to the lengthy unemployment lines outside Job Centres seen in the 1980s.

The spending cuts announced in the recent Budget have been described as the beginning of longest and deepest period of public sector expenditure reduction since the Second World War.