Techies and hairdressers united in the moonlight

What do Blighty's hairdressers and IT technicians have in common? A shared love of moonlighting for a little extra cash, apparently.

More than a third (37 per cent) of IT technicians admit taking on extra work outside office hours, a survey has revealed. This lands techies in the top 10 UK professions for moonlighting, although some way behind the most prolific cash-in-hand workers of all: the not-so-humble hairdresser.

A whopping 73 per cent of hairdressers admit taking paid work outside the salon, a snip ahead of the next most prolific moonlighters: mechanics (67 per cent) and plumbers (65 per cent). The survey of more than 1,400 UK workers was carried out by recruitment agency review website Hirescores.com.

Almost half of survey respondents said they had done work for customers they had met through their day jobs, while one-third said they had worked cash in hand because they needed the money.

In separate news, employment prospects for job seekers in the UK look to be on the up. A report by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation and KPMG published today shows a third consecutive month of growth in both permanent and temporary jobs during October - with permanent placements rising at their fastest rate in two years, and growth of temporary staff appointments at a 16-month high.