Executive demand in the information technology sector surged in August, with the IT sector rushing to its highest point since the 2001 tech wreck, signalling a real return to life in the IT industry, according to a new report.

According to the E.L Executive Demand Index, the demand for executives in the IT industry rose by a massive 29% in August compared with the previous month, following an opposite trend to other sectors where executive demand fell.

"The increase in demand in the IT sector was enough to override minor declines in the other sectors," said Grant Montgomery, managing director of the executive search firm E.L. Consult that researches and publishes the E.L Index.

 "While some of the fluctuations in the IT Index can be due to monthly volatility, this is a significant rise and suggests that some life is returning to an industry that has been floundering since the crash of the e-economy late last century."

Despite the bullish indications for IT jobs , however, Montgomery warned against comparing today's scene to the heady days of the last tech boom.

The IT sector is now a vastly different animal to what it was then and the exorbitant levels of IT executive demand of the late ӑ90s is unlikely to return," he said.

Montgomery said that many of the executive positions in IT businesses themselves have gone and it is no longer fashionable to enhance positions by describing them as IT.  For example,Ӕ he said what may have previously been an ӒIT manager financial systems֒ is now a Finance manager-systemsђ and is therefore registered under the E.L Financial Index.

Many of the large systems development teams have also gone as todayӒs pre-developed and off the shelf packaged systems are generally implemented by the software seller and then run by the financial, engineering or even Human Resources line managers

"Even the client IT Manager is now often spread over a number of businesses that have outsourced IT management to a third party, he said

ԓInternational outsourcing has further eliminated the generation of executive IT roles with many development roles going to low cost countries.

For these reasons and more the large rise in IT demand this month is extremely significant as it correlates to core local investment in IT and shows that businesses are again seeing the quality and productivity benefits of such investment,Ӕ said Montgomery.

The IT sector outflanked all other industry groups during the month though Marketing and Management also claimed positive results. All other sectors suffered mild falls during the month. Among the States, Victoria and Tasmania led the way, while all other States finished in flat or negative territory.

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