Toby Smith

U.S. Recession Deepens

by Toby Smith   12/15/08

ChangeWave's latest corporate survey of 3,029 U.S. respondents, which was conducted Nov. 20 through Dec. 1, found alarmingly low fourth-quarter sales projections, abysmal visibility, a deteriorating job market and an unprecedented pullback in capital spending.

And that's just for starters.

In fact, a retesting of the November stock market low looks like a virtual guarantee with survey results like these.

Here's a snapshot of our results:

Fourth-Quarter Economic Freefall

A whopping 51% of respondents projected that their company sales will come in below plan for fourth quarter 2008 -- 16 points worse than the previous quarter. Only 11% said their company sales will come in above plan -- a seven-point decrease from previously.

As the following chart shows, these corporate sales projections are the worst ever recorded in a ChangeWave survey dating back to the depths of the 2001 recession.

But there's more.