The third quarter exhibited a sharp drop in IT worker confidence, as an increasing number of technology professionals say they believe that the economy is weakening, according to the IT Employee Confidence Index published by Spherion Corporation, a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based recruiting and staffing company, on Oct. 24.
Spherion’s employee confidence index, which measures workers’ confidence in their personal employment situation as well as their economic optimism, measured 54.1 for the third quarter of 2006, lower than the U.S. economy at large, which came in at 57.3.
This is a reversal of Q2 2006, when IT confidence came in ahead of the larger economy, at 58.4 versus 57.6 respectively.
For more on a related topic, see Bubble 2.0?
Forty-four percent of IT workers said that the economy was getting weaker in Q3, up from 40 percent in Q2.
These numbers caught up with those from U.S. workers as a whole, 43 percent of whom had said the economy was getting weaker in Q2, up to 44 percent in Q3.
IT workers are equally wary of job ability and their ability to find a new one, when looking.
Forty-four percent responded that there were fewer jobs available in Q3, up from 38 percent in Q2, and only 52 percent of tech professionals were confident they would be able to find a new job in Q3, down from 57 percent in Q2.
The bad vibe didn’t end there, as 17 percent of IT pros said they were not confident in the future of their current employer, up from 16 percent in Q2.
Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Sensing a Bubble, IT Worker Optimism Plunges