Despite signs showing a slow recovery, the UK still examples the most pessimistic views regarding a brighter future, it has been found.

KPMG revealed that 11 per cent of global respondents believe that recovery will come in 2009, 51 per cent see it in 2010 and 22 per cent believe it will be 2011.

The consensus in the UK, including those with small businesses in IT, was that true recovery would not come along until 2011.

Sue Bonney, the head of tax at KPMG Europe, said that their research showed the "truly seismic scale" of the global recession's impact on businesses around the world, though green shoots identified in the market will not grow for a long time for UK businesses.

She continued: "Whilst short to medium term survival is clearly of critical importance, adapting to the changing commercial world is also crucial and UK businesses will need to consider their longer-term strategies for the post-recession environment."

KPMG is the UK's leading provider of professional services including tax, audit and risk advice.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were guaranteed response times and allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues.