The U.K.’s tech economy is looking promising for jobs. Data from the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) reveals that placements, across all professional sectors, have increased year-on-year for both the permanent and contracting segments.

Thanks to encouraging gross domestic product (GDP) results, the economy has been on the upswing, in fact, at its fastest, since 2007. The technology sector is showing the most improvement, as nearly 44 percent of UK tech firms plan to hire more staff throughout 2014, leading analysts to believe that technology employment is expected to grow over the coming months.

“As optimism in the economy heightened towards the end of 2013, many organizations within the IT sector resurrected projects that had been put on hold during the financial downturn,” said Ann Swain, Chief Executive of APSCo in a statement. “Consequently the demand for highly skilled contractors – for example to manage large scale system upgrades – who could quickly enter a business, hit the ground running, and manage the project until completion intensified. With employers realizing the benefits of contractors for project led work we expect their use to increase hugely over the coming months.”

Data also revealed

• The number of overall vacancies increased by +3.5 percent, signaling six months of consecutive growth within this sector

• Employers within the technology space are using flexible labour as a matter of course – driven largely by project work – with +11 percent more contract positions over the last year than permanent ones

“There are already more IT workers in the UK than in any other European country and while the strong demand we are seeing at the moment should enable the UK to maintain this lead, most countries are recording increases in IT employment,” said John Nurthen, Executive Director International Development for Staffing Industry Analysts.