Or be “more flexible in earnings expectations”.

One in four IT contractors reported a cut in pay rates in the past year, according to a survey by Monash University, on behalf of Entity Solutions.

The survey did not drill down into how much pay rates had been reduced but Entity chief Matthew Franceschini said he was "surprised" and thought the number of contractors that experienced pay cuts "could have been higher."

"There's a lot of impact supposedly being felt by contractors who aren't as secure in their roles as permanent staff," Franceschini said.

"When you hear and read that a lot you tend to think there's an element of truth to it. But when I saw the figures, I felt a lot of what I was hearing and seeing was not really where things were at."

Almost half of contractors said the biggest impact of the global financial crisis on their jobs was "having to be more flexible in their earnings expectations".

They had also experienced more competition for available roles and been under pressure to perform beyond their remits.

Researchers from Monash University believed pay rates "would probably stay static" this year.

The survey also found that about even numbers of contractors - almost 60 percent - believed they could find a job "as good as the one they had now", but that it would be "quite" to "very" difficult to find something better.