The happy economic news of early spring has yet to yield real results, either in the stock markets or the real world, and it appears that people are getting tired of waiting. This month’s Confidence Meter numbers edged back from last month’s: Our respondents rated the chance for a recovery in the overall economy in the next three months at 6.3 on a scale of 1 to 10, down two tenths of a point. The scores for their industry categories and their own companies followed suit, also dropping two tenths of a point, to 6.1 and 6.6, respectively. By far the most pessimistic industry: telecom, which scored the lowest in all three categories. The most confident: pharmaceuticals, government and business consulting/professional services.
