The latest bi-annual study by a leading IT organisation has found IT graduates will struggle to find jobs in the current economic climate, as employers look to drop vacancies and salaries.

Research carried out by the Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) noted that vacancies during 2008 dropped by over five per cent and starting salaries did not show any growth.

The association, which represents hundreds of big recruiters of university graduates to both public and private sector jobs, said nearly half of those companies it interviewed expected to hire fewer people this year, with two-thirds of them attributing the problems to the current financial climate.

News of this could be troublesome for the jobs market outlook, as seven per cent of all graduate vacancies in 2008 were in the IT sector.

The AGR was established in 1968 and is a not-for-profit organisation which is dedicated to putting university leavers in work across the UK, aiming to be impartial and authoritative in the sector.

A recent Connect survey found that the two major concerns about outsourcing services like IT support were 'loss of control' (56 per cent) and 'budget over-runs' (43 per cent).