IT Job Confidence Declining

IT professionals are less confident about their ability to get a job in today’s economy, according to the latest IT Employee Confidence Index from IT job provider Technisource.

Conducted by Harris Interactive (News - Alert), the survey of IT confidence levels in the third quarter showed a reversal from the overall sentiment from the second quarter. The index itself dropped 7.6 percentage points to level off at 50.6 percent.

The most dramatic change is in optimism around the strength of the economy, which dropped 18 percentage points from the second quarter. Only 20 percent of those surveyed believe the economy is getting stronger versus 38 percent in the prior quarter, while 47 percent feel the economy is staying the same and 33 percent say it’s getting weaker.

As a result, 56 percent of the IT workers questioned think that fewer jobs are now available, compared with 49 percent in the prior quarter. Of all those surveyed, 38 percent said they expect to look for new jobs over the next year, up one percentage point from the second quarter and the highest level since the fourth quarter of 2009. But only 43 percent of all IT professionals are confident they’d be able to land a new job.

Technisource wasn’t surprised by the pessimistic tone of the latest survey, pegging the dour sentiment on all of the recent headlines about the economy’s choppy recover. On the plus side, the survey showed that most IT workers are confident in their own job security and the strength of their own companies. And the 43 percent of IT pros uncertain about their ability to find a new job still leaves 57 percent who remain confident.

But the rise in personal job security and the desire to find a new job means that although IT workers feel secure in their current roles, they’re still looking out for other opportunities. Technisource cautions employers that may have put retention efforts on the sidelines over the past year that continuing to do so may pose problems once the economy does fully recover.