Almost three quarters of private businesses use the services of contractors in some form or another, a new report claims.
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) Labour Market Outlook Summer 2012, 74 per cent of firms use the skills of temporary workers.
And the figure rises to 78 per cent when public sector organisations are included.
Despite this, the CIPD says that the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) have impacted on the number of contractors and temps used by firms.
A fifth of firms also revealed they now only hire flexible workers for periods of 12 weeks or less because this means that they fall outside of the qualifying period for AWR rights such as equal pay.
Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), recently said that the UK is well positioned to get out of the current economic downturn because it has the most flexible workforce in Europe.
