The number of permanent and contract IT job vacancies in the UK is falling faster than at any time in the past six years, as recruitment consultancies report overall demand for staff across all sectors declining at record rates.

But the state of the IT jobs market is not as bad as elsewhere - IT recruitment is falling more slowly than most other sectors, according to the latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG Report on Jobs survey, released today.

The only roles showing a growth in demand in the UK are in the nursing, medical and care sector – everywhere else has shown a drop. But the rate of decline in IT is less than every other sector covered by the research.

Permanent IT vacancies have an index ranking of 33.1 in the study – a rank of 50 means no change, greater than 50 is an increase in demand, and below that figure represents a fall. Twelve months before the December survey, IT's ranking was 56.7.

For temporary or contract staff, the IT index is 35.3, down from 58.5 in December 2007.

The key IT skills that remain in demand were identified by the survey as .Net, PHP, C#, and web development.

Across all job sectors, decline in demand fell at record levels, with the overall survey index figure falling to 29.5.

"These figures are deeply worrying and show that the contraction in the labour market is now rapidly accelerating," said REC chief executive Kevin Green.

"The decline in both permanent and temporary appointments in December is the sharpest recorded since the survey began in 1997."

Mike Stevens, partner and head of business services at KPMG, added: "These latest figures only serve to confirm the most pessimistic projections for the UK jobs market."