Almost a quarter (24%) of HR recruitment staff have taken a pay cut since the beginning of the recession, HR magazine has learned.

According to research from the Keep Britain Working Campaign, 17% of HR recruitment staff have experienced a reduction in hours and 27% have lost benefits.

Overall, 54% of 1,600 UK workers surveyed have taken a pay cut, a reduction in hours or a loss of benefits. While 34% of employees have experienced just one of these changes, 12% have suffered two and 5% have had to deal with all three.

James Reed, founder of Keep Britain Working Campaign, said: "The UK workforce has demonstrated unprecedented flexibility during this recession, allowing organisations to explore a whole range of cost-cutting responses other than relying solely on redundancies.

"British workers are increasingly pessimistic about job prospects in the immediate future, but - and in contrast to parts of Continental Europe - overall workers appear to be making common cause with their managers to help keep people working."

Last week Honda staff and managers took a 3% pay cut to stave off redundancies.