IT contractors and other people looking for work have been warned that unemployment is going to be a "major problem" for the UK for years to come.

While there is an obvious need to cut the national deficit significantly, the government's cuts will mean significant job losses, according to Stephen Overell, associate director at the Work Foundation.

In addition, the government does not seem to have come up with any particular plan for replacing these lost job vacancies, as the Conservative Party looks likely to be associated with unemployment once again, Mr Overell claims.

He continued: "I think it is very sad that they have axed all of these labour market programmes that the previous government brought in.

"I think they were helping to take the edge off raising unemployment."

However the latest report from the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that overall employment will rise by 1.34 million to 30.23 million in the next five years.