Abstract
The year began with a good deal of international tension as well as various indications of recessional economics. Two weeks into the new year, a rash of bankruptcies visited the geoenvironmental consulting industry, in which some of the very companies that had grown by expansion in takeover of smaller firms were the unstable targets. The year ended with the demise of many established geotechnical and geoenvironmental consulting firms and the establishment of new entities, generally by the more substantial of the personnel becoming castaways in the reorganizations.
Employment in the private sector remained brisk but much adjustment was going on because of a generally shrinking work load related to shortfalls on taxes collected by government as the basis for public-works construction, especially in the infrastructure. All nations were in deficit spending and retraction of major projects.