That's the conclusion of recruitment firm Robert Walters' latest market update, which covers the April to June quarter just gone.

The update for Auckland notes: "Technology is considered by many organisations to be a core business function and therefore we should see a higher priority of hiring in this area compared to others.

"Projects that were put on hold in quarter four of 2008 and quarter one of 2009 have been reviewed and projects that are classified as business-critical, such as implementations and upgrades, will need to go ahead to ensure that technology moves forward and keeps up to date.

"This should result in the growth of demand for highly skilled candidates in the project space."

However, the hiring downturn in IT which started last year continued into the April to June quarter, the update notes. But the quarter saw some light, nonetheless.