I heard from a friend in Wharton that Booz has decided not to hire any MBA this year as they already have the people they need? Reminds me of 2001. Please give me hope. I was thinking of quitting my Big 4 job.

I'm surprised this one hasn't attracted any responses yet. Isn't anyone else worried about freezes/ redundancies? Or is it 'going to be different this time'??!!

this is not exactly true. it really depends in which area you are referring to. subject matter experts are still getting offers couriered the same day as there is likely to be a shortage of skills (and therefore continued high demand from clients even in economical downturns). The more general consultants, as always, are worried about the market tomorrow.

We've come across a couple of firms this quarter who are throttling back on recruitment, but they are overwhelmingly in the minority. Those that are slowing down have either been very successful on the hiring front and so are now ahead of target in terms of headcount growth; or they've seen a major contract fail to renew and so are adopting a cautious approach.By and large though it's still very much a case of the firms not being able to bring talent in through the door fast enough (and having spoken with 50-odd firms at last week's careers fair, that's a pretty sizeable proportion of the consulting market I'm basing my comments on).So chin up for now. Start worrying only if there's a major stock market crash!Tony RestellTop-Consultant.com

Thanks Tony. I guess I'll just concentrate on worrying about the impending house price crash for now!