Groundloop - I agree, it is always a gamble but if you have already decided that you are going to take the gamble then it is only really a question of timing. If you were to look back over the past twenty years I doubt you would find a single time when there were no macro-economic headwinds. Equally there are always uncertainties but one can't be frozen in a state of paralysis on the basis of speculative what-ifs. That is not to say that more bad things won't happen - they always will. Good things will happen too though. In these days of rolling 24hr news straight to your hand, it is all to easy to feel that the world is about to rip apart at the seams. It isn't. A few years ago the forecasters used to talk about Atlantic frontal depressions bringing a spell of wet and windy weather - now we must listen to nonsense about Storm Beavis or Hurricane Camilla thus contributing to a self-inflicted malaise.
My point is that on a micro-economic scale the supply/demand equation seems to be creeping in the direction of the employees rather than the employers.