"We now see true recovery in the making," Gartner's regional vice president said.

"The combination of business transformation with key technology advances, architectural changes, market forces and best practices will lead to a strong recovery for IT (information technology) in the near future," he said.

Gartner said companies will set aside bigger budgets in 2004 for technology upgrading in a bid to strengthen their businesses and raise productivity.

But the projected recovery in the technology sector is expected to result in widespread job losses, possibly numbering in the hundreds of thousands, as companies seek to trim costs by leveraging on technology to raise productivity, US-based Gartner said.

Workers affected by the job displacements are likely to be holding high-paying, white-collar positions, it said.

SPACE.WIRE