Despite a dip in February’s Security Market Index (SMI), security professionals are hopeful for a return to normalcy, the latest report from the Security Industry Association (SIA) indicates.

The SIA Security Market Index is a bimonthly review of current market conditions, with data taken from a survey of SIA members. The Index’s goal is to provide a macro-view of confidence levels in the security industry every two months while closely examining six specific business measures: number of employees or hours worked; marketing spending; product production or service output; capital equipment spending; R&D spending; and product or service sales.

The February SMI was 44. In December 2020, the SMI was 54 — the highest it has been since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A score of above 50 indicates positive conditions in the industry, with security professionals predominately confident in their business outlooks.

This month, 25 percent of security professionals rated current business conditions as being “excellent”; 50 percent said they were “good”; 6 percent said they were “average”; 13 percent  rated them as “fair”; and 6% said conditions were “poor.”

In December 2020, 13 percent of respondents said conditions were “excellent”; 53 percent said they were “good”; 7 percent said they were “average”; 13 percent said they were “fair”; and 13 percent said conditions were “poor.”

This indicates that, despite the dip in the overall SMI, security professionals are experiencing better business conditions compared to the last report.

“The latest SMI results are consistent with the general sentiment in the country,” said Ron Hawkins, director of industry relations at SIA. “We’re still in a crisis, and activity remains limited. However, with cases dropping and vaccinations increasing, the prospects for this summer and beyond appear very bright.”

SIA members can read the full report online.