The study is a combination of eight indicators which provide a summary of changes in the level of ICT business activity within Australia, drawing on information from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), the Australian Stock Exchange and ITCRA's SkillsMatch data.

It also polled 50 ICT decision makers from medium-to-large Australian ICT organisations on their forecasts for ICT spending, project approvals, and demand for ICT permanent employees and contractors in the third quarter of 2012.

The most significant contributor to the trend is the fall in DEEWR's Internet vacancy index, which shows a 29 per cent drop in ads for ICT professionals since the beginning of 2011.

Longhaus managing director, Peter Carr, said while the Tech Index has remained at the same level during 2012, a longer-term downwards trend is evident.

"The Index has fallen each quarter since the beginning of 2011, aside from a minor two point increase in the fourth quarter of 2011.This softening has been particularly pronounced for software and applications programmers, and ICT business and systems analysts," he said.