C-Meter: March 2002

This month's imperceptible change in the Confidence Meter numbers over last month appears to reflect the current wait-and-see attitude about the economy. CIOs pegged the chances that the overall economy would recover in the next 90 days at 5.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, identical to last month. Numbers for their own industries rose from 5.5 to 5.8, and those for their own companies inched up a tenth of a percentage point, to 6.5. This month's winner in the bullishness category: nonprofits and trade associations, at 6.8 for the economy, 6.7 for their own sector and 7.6 for their own organizations. The utilities and telecom sectors remained the most pessimistic about the economy as a whole, scoring 4.2 and 4.8, respectively.