After several months of salary freezes and job cuts due to economic slowdown, the IT sector has only recently started doling out the long due salary hikes to its employees. However, it is already starting to have its impact on the industry as despite the average hike being only marginal (about 1.4%), it is proving to be enough to arrest the high attrition rate plaguing the industry. According to a survey conducted by IDC, a global market research and advisory services firm, average rate of attrition in the IT sector has dropped by 3 percentage points from 18 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2009. In addition to that, the salary hike has also resulted in an increase in the average retention rate in the last one year from 79% in 2008 to 85% in 2009.