Opportunities within the small businesses sector for freelance workers are likely to keep on growing, a new report from Microsoft has concluded.

According to research carried out by the software giant, some 63 per cent of its partners expect to see smaller enterprises step up their IT spending over the course of 2010.

This compares to just 25 per cent of those partners, who are based in the UK, the US, Canada, Brazil and India, who expressed such optimism in 2009, suggesting that work opportunities for freelance IT specialist are picking up after the global economic downturn.

Commenting on the findings, Microsoft's Birger Steen said: "The partners see that customers are back in investment mode, and they see that it's both investments done to continue driving costs down and to prepare for new growth."

He added that this is "obviously a much more sustainable model than last year, when everybody was just looking to cut costs, both for partners and customers and for Microsoft".

Just recently, the latest Business Trends report from the UK accountancy firm BDO LLP revealed that optimism among British businesses is now at its highest level for four years.