Now that we’re facing a real and sustained economic downswing in some critically important markets, the tendency inevitably will be to cut back on all of the “non-critical” operations expenses (like training) until the market recovers. It seems the prevailing attitude is that, “It’s just not a good time to train,” no matter what the market is doing. That’s just shortsighted and not in the interest of your company’s long term growth or competitive advantage.