The Computer Technology Industry Association, or CompTIA, recently revealed the results of its latest Business Confidence Index, which factors in opinions from leaders at 300 IT companies in the US on the direction of the overall economy, the IT industry, and each participant’s firm. Although the index slipped 1.4 points in June compared with March, it appears that those polled are bullish on business prospects for the rest of the year, as well as the need to hire additional staff.

Delving into the results of the CompTIA survey, one finds that IT companies have quite a positive outlook on the rest of this year, as 61% said that revenue would increase during the second half, whereas only 8% forecast a decrease.

The prognosis for smaller firms, however, is not quite as optimistic, yet far from dire. While these smaller companies continue to worry about access to credit as a barrier to expansion, CompTIA has predicted that the Business Confidence Index will continue to increase throughout the year, perhaps reaching a yearly high by its next go-around in two months.

Data used to create the index also showed that firms concerned about access to credit fell from 41% in December 2009 to 26% in June.

Many economists have warned about the potential for a ‘double-dip’ recession, but the companies that CompTIA polled in the IT field appear to have a rosier view of their own sector and the economy as a whole. The trade group’s data shows that fears over a possible stalled recovery have fallen slightly, from 58% in December 2009 to 46% in June, while concerns over weak consumer demand decreased from 56% to 40%.

"IT industry executives remain relatively confident about the tech sector and about their firm's prospects, but concern over the health of the U.S. economy persists," said Tim Herbert, vice president, research, CompTIA. "In some ways the results point to a 'two steps forward, one step back' mentality, where positive news and momentum are followed by unexpected bad news and a renewed sense of negativity about economic conditions."

Another positive note from the report centers on hiring, as 37% of the IT firms polled expect to increase hiring over the second half of 2010. Forty-seven percent of the companies said they were fully staffed but wanted to hire more personnel to expand business, and among those expected to hire over the next six months, 52% said they will be looking for programmers and application developers.