IDG News Service - U.S. companies are pulling back hard on IT spending as the economic downturn continues, a new study by ChangeWave Research has found.

ChangeWave surveyed 1,947 people involved with IT spending at their organizations. The survey was conducted Aug. 11 through 21. Eighty percent of those surveyed were located in the U.S., along with small percentages in Canada and other countries.

Thirty percent overall reported that third-quarter IT spending was lower than previously planned, an increase of three percentage points since ChangeWave's May spending survey. Meanwhile, only 12% spent more than planned.

In addition, 29% said spending will drop or even cease in the fourth quarter, a 5% increase over the previous study. Thirteen percent plan to spend more.

"Thus, the brief period of stabilizing we picked up in May has given way to another major leg downward," ChangeWave director of research Paul Carton wrote in a blog post yesterday. "In fact, you have to go way back to the middle of the last recession (August 2001) to find a ChangeWave survey projecting this big of an IT spending downturn."

Higher energy costs stood as a top factor for the spending slowdown, cited by 35% of respondents.

ChangeWave's findings show a turnaround is not imminent; 39% of respondents predicted that IT spending in their companies would not rise until the second quarter of 2009 or beyond.

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