Business Hiring Heads South

Business hiring declined in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to survey data compiled by ChangeWave Alliance. That lead ChangeWave to declare that a recession already was underway.

Enterprise IT Spending Heading South?

ChangeWave’s latest enterprise IT spending survey points to a negative growth rate for the second quarter of 2008, suggesting that U.S. business spending has already in a recession of sorts.

Some 23 percent of respondents report their company’s IT spending will decrease--or there will be no spending at all--in the second quarter.

About 15 percent say spending will increase.

A total of 2,013 respondents involved with IT spending in their organization participated in the February survey, ChangeWave says.

The last time such negative growth was reported was August 2001. And you might recall that was the time when the Web and telecom industries melted down. The ChangeWave data show a slowdown in businesses of every size.

About 43 percent of respondents say their companies will spend normally. About 53 percent say their firms will slow spending.

In the first quarter, about 10 percent of respondents reported they had spent more than planned.

Another 27% say they’ve spent less than planned. It appears storage has been hardest hit. But spending on enterprise applications, servers and security also are weaker.

That doesn't seem to apply to smart phone activity, though. Respondents say their firms will be spending more on smart phones than before.

It's starting to look like the spending slowdown by business users already has begun, whether or not we find out later that the U.S. economy entered a formal "recession," which is to say back-to-back quarters of negative growth.

Enterprise IT Spend is Falling

The latest ChangeWave corporate IT spending survey shows--for the first time in years--a weaker IT spending growth rate and poor visibility headed into the first quarter of 2008. About 24 percent of respondents say their company will increase IT spending for the first quarter, a figure unchanged from the previous survey, but far below the average seven-point seasonal increase seen in each of the last four years, Changewave says.

Another 20 percent of those surveyed report IT spending will decrease, or there will be no spending at all in the first quarter, which is three percentage points worse than reported in the last survey.

While just over half (52 percent) say their company is giving a "green light" to IT spending, suggesting spending is normal, this figure is down five percent from previously and is now at its lowest level in more than three years, Changewave says.

Some 42 percent say their company is either reducing spending or putting spending on hold, the worst reading in three years, Changewave notes.