The majority of IT workers no longer fear redundancy because they believe it is inevitable in an economic downturn, according to research by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

An analysis of calls to a redundancy hotline set up by the management training body on 5 January, along with a survey of 300 IT managers, indicated that four out of five workers in the IT sector know someone who has been made redundant in their organisation, and one in four are already updating their CVs.

Ruth Spellman, chief executive at the CMI, warned that people should be developing their skills now to enable them to move on in the event that redundancy occurs.

"There is a worrying lack of concern about helping those who survive redundancy. Unless these individuals are given a focus or sense of direction, the spiral of low productivity and low morale will continue on a downward trend, " she said.

The CMI has set up a Redundancy Support Service and offers a free legal helpline on 01536 207400 to help the growing number of jobless workers, which it said has increased by 50,000 since 5 January.

On a more positive note, the research found that 69 per cent of IT employees believe that there is less stigma attached to redundancy than in the 1990s, and nearly two-thirds are using the slowdown to reassess their careers.