IT contractors may find there is more competition for jobs due to the large number of redundancies in the last year.

According to the chairman of the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC) Adrian Marlowe, the UK now has a large pool of unemployed skilled workers.

Despite this, there are still fundamental problems with the UK's education and training systems, Mr Marlowe adds, which is leading to a skills gap in certain key sectors.

"There are still many dissatisfied employers … It is a matter of finding those people and putting them forward for the job that fits," he said.

According to the latest data from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, many employers are seeing an increase in candidates for the job positions they advertise.

However, it is agreed that they are still experiencing problems employing people with the correct skill sets, as 68 per cent are having difficulty getting the right person for the job.