"The last time the ICT employment market was so dramatically affected was after Y2K, when many companies shed IT employees," Wadsworth said in a statement.

"Hiring managers are looking at a range of steps they can take to effectively manage through this period - no one wants to make redundancies - but in many instances businesses have had to react rapidly to cut costs. It's creating a volatile work environment."

A US survey by the CIO Executive Council found IT hiring freezes had increased from 46 percent in October 2008 to 59 percent in January this year.