It would seem that confidence is up, but a significant number of readers are biding their time. The May Confidence Meter numbers have hardly budged at all from last month’s encouraging results. Our respondents rated the chance for a recovery in the overall economy in the next three months at 6.5 on a scale of 1 to 10, up a tenth of a point, while their scores for their industry category and their own companies remained unchanged, at 6.3 and 6.8, respectively. Among the most hopeful industry sectors were retail/wholesale distribution and nonprofits/trade associations. Meanwhile, telecom was by far the least hopeful sector, scoring the chance for a recovery in their own sector at just 5.2.
