I’ll say give it a miss unless you really cannot continue to work with the current one anymore.

Permanent position downgrade to contract position is unwise move. It is normal for contract worker to be paid higher , easily 20-30% higher than permanent staff because they will not get permanent staff benefits like annual bonus, insurance, etc . During the tough condition , the first group of ppl to be let go at any organisation will be the contract staffs , this is the hard fact & this situation is happening at currently.