Market confidence falls again but doesn't plummet

September was a pretty painful month for the Digital Pulse, Chinwag's confidence index for the digital sector. Industry confidence took an almighty whack, so with baited breath and more than a little trepidation, the numbers were crunched for October’s Digital Pulse.

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The news is bad, but it could have been so much worse. In September the overall index, which comprises views on current and future market conditions, dropped by 7.5%, the largest single month drop since the Digital Pulse started in March 2008. In October, the index dropped again, but this time only by 4.4%.

There were falls across all the indices of the Digital Pulse, which covers: current and future market conditions, salary satisfaction, intention to move jobs and employment opportunities.

The most striking fall was in confidence with current market conditions with a drop of 8.6% in October, which follows a 9.4% fall in September. The optimism in the digital economy weathering the economic storm better than other sectors may yet prove to be unfounded with plenty of firms quietly dropping contractors.

Unsurprisingly, attitudes towards salary satisfaction and intention to move jobs have held steady suggesting a battening down of hatches for the remainder of the year, with hope that the situation will ease along with budgets in January.

For some more in-depth analysis of October's results in easy-to-read graphical format, read on...

How respondents feel about current market conditions