But hiring has been "relatively steady" across the board, says Jim Meade, the branch's director of permanent placement.
"We have definitely seen employers get a little more hesitant to hire, a little more cautious," he says. "But they're definitely hiring."
Business even picked up this year for Maryland Chemical Co., which makes and distributes chemicals to a wide variety of Maryland companies.
"Things became really good for us at the very beginning of the second quarter, and they've been that way ever since," said Fred Glose Jr., the company's vice president. The company expects revenue to shrink next year, but only because prices are falling.
But to be sure, Maryland Chemical is an exception. Many businesses are having a miserable 2008. Few expect a decent 2009.
"We've probably been in a recession since a year ago," Tom Saquella, head of the Maryland Retailers Association, says of his members. "The last strong retail sales we had here in Maryland were November 2007."
After housing, retail is the defining weak point of this downturn. This is the first consumer recession since 1991. Nowhere is the underperforming Maryland consumer better illustrated than in the state's disappointing sales-tax collections. Automobile sales, which depend on credit that has become increasingly scarce, have been especially hard hit.
Towson's Irani foresees an eventual defense slowdown whether or not U.S. forces withdraw from Iraq.
"Obviously there's a trade-off between bailing out financial institutions and building more B2 bombers," he says.
Even so, "I think we will still outperform the nation" next year, he says. "Compared to our historical standard, we've slowed down considerably. Compared to the rest of the nation, we're ahead."
Maryland has probably avoided a 2008 recession, an impressive achievement. That won't be so easy to repeat next year. A year or two ago, we wouldn't have been satisfied to merely stand in place. Now that prospect looks pretty good.
