Head of IT recruitment for TMP Hudson, Martin Nicholls says things are on the up and up, but it isn't a revolution.
"We are the busiest we've been in a long time. The signs are good. A lot of our clients are coming to us for multiple assignments now, which is something that went away for a while," he told ZDNet Australia.
Particularly strong demand for sales people and business analysts in Australia and New Zealand has pushed up business.
"There are some good signs out there," Nicholls said, "[But] any pick up in the market will be evolutionary and not revolutionary".
He disagreed with those who suggest big money jobs are on their way back, but says wages at the senior management levels are still looking peachy.
"I don't think we've seen any dramatic increases... [but] I haven't seen any downward spiral recently," he said. "Through the whole cycle one thing that we've noticed is that senior positions have maintained their hold".
The war in Iraq had an effect, but Nicholls describes it as a psychological one.
"I think it was more of a psychological factor over here... people were treading cautiously," he said.
Ambit Recruitment's executive director Peter Butterss says business is booming.
"We've certainly seen a huge increase in demand from January this year," he said. "I'd say it's at least a 50 percent [rise]".
He "absolutely" agrees with Nicholls--sales and business analyst roles are the flavour of the month, and says clients are keen to get major projects underway again in a more certain environment.
"After Y2k and the GST there was a lack of preparedness to initiate new projects after so much had been spent," he said. "This [current activity] is a backlog of projects that really needed to be done that weren't".
He dismisses the idea that big money jobs are coming back.
"They're certainly not. The permanent market, in Victoria, I would describe as soft... we're not seeing huge roles or expensive people moving into permanent positions," he said.
