At the start of the second quarter of the year, AIGA’s Design Leaders Confidence Index continues to reflect strong concern over a faltering national economy for the next six months, although the decline in confidence is not as dramatic as it has been in the past two quarters. This comes as national economic figures released earlier this month were better than forecast. Design leaders believe that the design economy will fare better than other sectors, with only one-third of the respondents believing that design business conditions will get worse; most of those feel conditions would be only moderately worse. This cautious group is smaller than the number who felt the past six months were worse than usual.
The overall confidence index—declining to 64.06, its lowest since we began collecting data—documents the anticipation of a severe drop in overall business activity. The positive signs are in the assessment of design business, which only one-third of respondents feel will decline in the next six months. Only one in four reduce their likelihood of hiring new employees, and only one in six expect to reduce the acquisition of equipment and software.
The next survey will be conducted in late July 2008.
For more information, visit www.aiga.org/confidence-index
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on May 23, 2008
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