That's the conclusion of a new study from Chicago-based IT management and tech consulting firm , which argues that the IT economy has been steadily improving since the fourth quarter of 2010 based on corporate earnings and hiring data.

For the study, Maven Wave reviewed improving economic figures from bellwether IT vendors, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and others, and correlated them with slowly improving in businesses across the nation.

What the data shows, says Maven Wave Partner Brian Farrar, is that slowly increasing employment numbers are helping to drive IT spending based on what Maven Wave calls "the $2.40 rule."

The $2.40 rule means that for every $1 a company spends on employee labor costs it spends another $2.40 on hardware and software costs for the new employees, Farrar says. When layoffs occur during downturns, they lead to corresponding cutbacks to IT spending because there are fewer workers that require the investment. Since the fourth quarter of last year, those cutbacks have been declining, he adds.

"That's what gave us the confidence that the [IT spending] squeeze is over," Farrar said. "It means that people will again start investing in IT, and that is in fact what is happening. "Hardware and software are beginning to move again."