As regular visitors to Contractor UK will know only too well, the last year has not been a good time for IT contractors. Although some of the 'major' IT news sites are biased towards permanent IT workers and report the poor state of the IT contract market with seeming 'glee', few can deny that we have seen better times in past years.

Privacy chief to DoH: 'Leak sensitive details again and face prosecution.'

The long-term growth in the use of IT contractors is likely to resume soon says Plexian, the leading IT staffing agency. The recent downsizing of the IT sector has seen a sudden reversal in the trend of the last 10 years that, until now, has seen contract workers replacing permanent positions across the sector.

Techies in London who want faster pay growth should relocate.

Expert: IT freelancers have more scope to claim solo and joint inventions.

Gates isn't ignoring the wow factor of robots.

We hail the best and worst of IT contracting in 2007, as voted for by CUK readers.

It's the government, stupid, not the economy, that upsets IT contractors.

An optimistic picture for the longer-term future of the IT recruitment market was spelled out in London this week by Don McLaurin, Chief Executive of the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), the US association representing IT recruitment companies.