The demand for IT workers may have stopped growing, according to new figures.

However, the industry showed the third-highest demand of eight sectors covered in the research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), ITPro reports.

It says that across all sectors, the wages of temporary workers dropped to a five-year low, while the data on salaries for permanent staff suggested slight increases.

According to the website, chief executive of the REC Kevin Green commented that the balance appears to have shifted after "years of a candidate-driven jobs market".

He continued: "It could be argued that employers now have the upper hand in an increasingly competitive jobs market."

ComputerWeekly.com recently reported figures from the GfK IT Barometer survey, which appeared to suggest that the IT sector has so far held firm against the effects of the credit crunch.

It found that more than £5 billion was spent on IT equipment in the first half of the year, representing an increase of £400 million on the same period last year.

More than half of small businesses (53%) believe that the most important benefit of outsourcing is guaranteed response times for IT support, London based Connect conducted the research in 2007.