External recruitment in European IT and telecommunications has grown more quickly than in any other vertical sector, according to research commissioned by executive search company TMP Worldwide.

TMP reports that the growth in external recruitment in the IT and telecoms sector in Europe has been fuelled by the rise and subsequent fall of many dot-com companies during the late 1990s. "The fall-out of the dot-com boom has put an extraordinary pool of talent with pan-European experience back on the job market," says Fiona Vickers of TMP.

Another driver in the flow of senior executives in the European technology sector has been the large number of mergers and acquisitions, as well as restructuring projects which have been undertaken in the sector over the past year to two years, says TMP.