IT execs: does the future look rosier?

IT was the top performing executive job sector in October, according to a recent employment index.

Search firm E.L Consult's monthly executive demand index found that IT outperformed other sectors during October.

Demand for IT executives saw only a two percent drop in demand over the previous month's figures.

Across all sectors executive demand had dropped a further 18 percent since the previous month's executive demand index, according to a statement. The Index found that demand for Australian executives was now at about half what it was early 2001.

Within IT, the index found there was a particularly strong performance in ACT.

Grant Montgomery, managing director at executive search firm E.L Consult, told iTnews that it was pretty hard to predict how the IT job market was going to pan out over the next year. However, he argued that there were good signs and he could see it slowly climbing from March next year.

Montgomery said that generally IT executives were picking up short-term work, but that permanent positions were much sought after. He urged senior IT professionals to broaden their skill base, to make them more flexible in the work they could do. "The single-skilled IT executive is the most vulnerable...look at some sort of business skill as well, such as an MBA," he said.