Last month I asked the question: are accountants recession-proof?. It seems that the beancounters have honed their processes and sharpened them up to the point where they could ride through and even thrive during a downturn.

Now we have further evidence of that with the latest Robert Half survey telling us that nine percent of chief financial officers plan to add full-time professionals and only 5 percent anticipate staff reductions. So it's a net 4 percent increase. And 85 percent anticipate no change in personnel levels. Business growth and increased workloads are cited as the reasons for putting on more staff.

Another sign that the beancounters, or at least the big firms, are relatively immune to the downturn.

Meanwhile, signs that the US is in a recession continue with factories, construction firms, retailers and a wide range of other businesses cutting 63,000 jobs in February and evidence that more people have given up looking for work.

Too bad they're not accountants.