[Ovid]

My current company isn't very old and they start new projects in Perl all the time. I'm leaving in May to go freelance and my first contract is with a startup in London who's work is in Perl. I also know about http://www.nestoria.co.uk/, a very successful startup that's written in Perl. Still, these are anecdotes and not data.

I hear about new Perl companies and positions all the time, but given that I've found myself specializing in Perl and watching the market (since I'm going freelance), I might be seeing this more than most. That being said, everything I've seen about Perl suggests that the language's main issue is that it's been so successful that many competitors have arisen and taken some market share. (Of course, the language can be quite ugly at times, but I try to encapsulate the ugliness when I can, so most people don't see it in my code).