[jyl]

Economy is slowing, has been slowing for 4 qtrs, GDP gro was appx 5% in 1Q06 now appx 2% in 4Q06. Consumer spending has weakened all year, retail sales gro now near zero, less home equity and sluggish job growth. Corporate spending has been decent, not as good as corporate profits/cash balances would suggest, not yet seen dramatic acceleration or deceleration. Government spending is strong on strong tax receipts, most of job growth in last several yrs has been in public sector and related health care sector. Adds up to decelerating economy. But inflation running > 2%. Energy, wage, commodities inflation, add food inflation to list, ethanol demand -> corn price rise -> packaged food and meat animal price rise. Fed focused on inflation, futures pricing very low chance of Fed rate cut at next meeting. I personally think 50% chance of recession (GDP gro 0% or negative) in 2007.

In which industries or regions are you seeing temp worker hiring fall off the most?