That is according to research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in conjunction with KPMG published in its Labour Market Outlook report.
The report reveals that half of employers questioned have stopped employing temporary or agency staff to avoid making full-time employees redundant.
A similar number of companies have introduced recruitment freezes to avoid losing existing employees.
Gerwyn Davies, CIPD public policy adviser and the author of the report explained: "What often goes unnoticed beneath the headlines is the extent to which employers are introducing alternatives to avoid or minimise the number of redundancies they make."
Mr Davies said that the findings of the report illustrate the measures employers will go to in order to "minimise the impact of the recession on their employees".
Some 19 per cent of companies said they would introduce flexible working measures to reduce the incidence of employee redundancy.
