Gartner released its forecast for worldwide IT spending today, with expectations that this market will increase by 3 percent this year to $3.6 trillion. That’s half a percent more than what the research firm predicted in a report from the previous quarter.

That isn’t enough for a change in terminology though. Gartner sees ‘lackluster growth’ on an industry-wide level, as well as several specific segments. Global spending on IT services is expected to increase by only 2.3 percent to $864 by the end of this year, which is definitely consistent but slightly disappointing. Here’s the tidbit that was posted along these figures:

“Worldwide IT services spending is forecast to reach $864 billion in 2012, a 2.3 percent increase from 2011 (see Table 1). Demand for consulting services is expected to remain high due to the complexity of environments for global business and technology leaders. Gartner analysts said consulting itself is becoming increasingly technology-based with the rise of analytics and big data, having deep implications on the future of consulting services.”

Some trends are doing a good job at keeping a fair distance between themselves and the industry average. While the services sector is lagging behind with a 0.7 percent margin, Gartner forecasts that enterprise software will increase by 4.3 percent this year and 6.9 percent in 2013 to $281 billion and $301 billion, respectively. Enterprises will only spend 3.4 percent more on hardware this year, less than the 7.4 percent increase the firm reported in 2011, and telcom equipment and services are following similar patterns. The latter industry will grow by a mere 1.4 percent, while specialized hardware sales will rise by around 11 percent.