As the recession bites, every day brings a list of job losses that resembles the ghastly daily reading of the names of those condemned by the French Revolutionaries...

...except that there is no sign of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

The self-employed read the lists with mixed feelings. Of course, there is real sympathy – “There but for the Grace of God go we.”

Yet there is also a sense of relief that we are not the ones in the tumbrils. We are not dependent for our entire livelihoods on the whims of executives whom we have probably never met.

Or are we? The small print of announcements like the loss of 10,000 job losses at British Telecom is that consultancy and contract workers are usually the first to go.

This means that small businesses – the consultancy firms and sub-contractors – feel the pain of job cuts before big business.

There is no point complaining: it is the right decision. Most employers feel the strongest moral obligation to their longest serving permanent staff. Those of us who are also employers feel the same.

Moreover – although this is usually a secondary consideration – it is legally simpler and less expensive to get rid of consultants and sub-contractors.

That may in fact provide the silver lining – at least for those small businesses who survive. The big boys will eventually be forced to cut their permanent staff as well and a lot of those jobs will never come back. This whole experience, if nothing else, proves the value of the flexibility of relying on contractors and consultants: the best way to avoid the legal hassle and expense of making permanent staff redundant is to have no permanent staff.

So, although we may be the first out, we may be the first back in when things improve – as they will... one day.