The vast majority of businesses in the UK technology sector are confident that they will create new jobs this year, according to research by Barclays.

Its survey, which canvassed 700 UK businesses, found that 63 percent of the technology firms in the study will create new jobs this year.

The figure is down 15 percent on last year’s score of 78 percent but is still considerably higher than the cross-sector average of 56 percent.

“Many businesses in this fast-growing sector are rapidly reinventing and broadening their reach as they add new capabilities to their offerings,” said Sean Duffy, MD of Barclay’s technology, media and telecoms, in a statement. “The significant increase in top level jobs demonstrates how serious these businesses are about achieving ambitious growth plans.”

The number of technology firms looking to employ people in senior management roles has nearly quadrupled from 15 percent last year to 57 percent this year. Meanwhile, the cross sector average shows that only 23 percent of companies are looking to recruit people at this level.

Elsewhere, ninety-three percent of tech companies planning to create jobs this year said they will be recruiting for middle management or skilled positions, while only 37 percent said they will be recruiting for junior roles.

While most businesses are confident they will create new jobs this year, the vast majority argue that the government’s efforts to remove barriers to job creation were having no impact on their organisation, with 88 percent of those surveyed believing this is the case.

The majority of firms surveyed (69 percent) don’t expect to make job cuts this year but

63 percent said there will be a shortfall when it comes to the private sector compensating for public sector job losses.

The study found 59 percent of firms were not interested in employing ex-public sector workers, with 39 percent claiming they do not have the right skills to fill a role in their business. Large businesses, with revenues between £100m and £500m, are the ones most likely to take on ex-public sector workers.