New research from IT industry analyst Gartner showed the sector's revenue dropped two per cent from the $7.39 billion (£4.85 billion) recorded in 2008 to reach $7.25 billion last year.
Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner, claimed that one of the main reasons for the revenue fall was firms implementing spending freezes on new IT projects in response to the recession.
'AD tool spending tends to be cyclical in nature with strong years of spending, as we saw in 2007, followed by a year or two of low or reduced investment,' she added.
However, Ms Wurster highlighted that security testing was one area of the market that experienced growth over the course of 2009, which could be good news for IT job applicants.
Last week, Gartner revealed that revenues in the worldwide application infrastructure and middleware software market grew by 2.8 per cent to reach $15.9 billion (£10.3 billion).
Laurie Wurster, research director at Gartner, claimed that one of the main reasons for the revenue fall was firms implementing spending freezes on new IT projects in response to the recession.
'AD tool spending tends to be cyclical in nature with strong years of spending, as we saw in 2007, followed by a year or two of low or reduced investment,' she added.
However, Ms Wurster highlighted that security testing was one area of the market that experienced growth over the course of 2009, which could be good news for IT job applicants.
Last week, Gartner revealed that revenues in the worldwide application infrastructure and middleware software market grew by 2.8 per cent to reach $15.9 billion (£10.3 billion).
