The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has claimed that IT contractors may actually benefit from cuts in public sector spending.

According to the latest data from the Office for National Statistics, hiring among certain public departments increased, while others saw a decrease.

The REC's director of research Roger Tweedy said that there is no doubt that the number of workers in the state sector will shrink.

However, he suggests that this may actually be of benefit to IT contractors and other temporary staff looking for employment opportunities.

"Once some of the necessary deep-rooted reforms have bedded down and public bodies have become leaner, there will be more need for flexible staffing arrangements rather than less," he said.

Stephen Overell, associate director of the Work Foundation, recently claimed that the private sector is not in a position to absorb the job losses that are being predicted in public organisations, and IT contractors will continue to feel the effect of cuts for at least two years.