The drop followed a 26 percent month-on-month fall in June. Grant Montgomery, E.L. Consult's managing director, told ZDNet Australia he "wouldn't put too much on this month's decline as a trend", pointing out the sector had been improving over the last six months. However, the level is still at half of what it was in July 2002.
The technology business sector saw a six percent reduction in demand for executives, while the government sector experienced a seven percent dip.
Montgomery said many companies, especially banks, were continuing to cut areas out of middle management. "They have the luxury to do that because of IT," he said, referring to the efficiencies provided by the centralisation of business processes.
"The general outlook [for executive IT positions] is positive but companies still don't see a great deal of benefit in massive IT spending," said Montgomery.
He added that many of the advertisements for executive IT positions were moving online, and that online advertisements for these executives were continuing to increase, although the fall in newspaper advertisements more than offset that this month.
