The number of vacancies slumped 38 per cent in the last three months of 2002 according to the CWJobs UK Quarterly Regional IT Skills Index.
Yep, less vacancies.
It seems the dip has put an end to hopes for an early recovery in the IT jobs markets, especially after earlier figures suggested that the rate of decline was slowing down.
It sounds like people began filling the available positions.

It reads to me like a comment on the appalling conditions as regards employment in the IT sector.

Vacancies, is an indicator of the number of jobs available
Decline in vacancies, suggests fewer jobs than before

Rate of decline slowing down, implies that the curve is not plunging downward anymore but is attemtpting to flatten out. In job terms, the number of available jobs decreased steadily from 10 to 8 to 6 to 4 and then tremulously clung on at 4 for a bit longer, before plunging further to 2. That brief plateau at 4 does not mean they were hiring more people; they stopped firing and closing out previously existing positions.

The article doesn't specify which aspect of IT the statistics pertain to, but one other reason for the bloodbath in the IT sector, apart from the dot com bust, is that, an increasing number of corporations are outsourcing back office work, with a resulting decline in ITES(IT Enabled Services) jobs. NJ has already passed some kind of regulation to prevent this from escalating any further, I am told.