"We do. In fact you can clearly see them in the job market, which is one of the broadest gauges of our state economy. Now the good news is that jobs are continuing to increase in our state," says Dr. Walden, a North Carolina Cooperative Extension specialist. "The bad news is that the rate of job growth is clearly slowing. For example in 2006, we were adding jobs at a rate between 3 and 4 percent a year. This year we are adding jobs at a rate between 1 and 2 percent a year. And many economists expect that rate of growth in jobs to actually slow through the end of this year and into the beginning of 2008 and perhaps not rebound until mid-year.

"A lot of this is tied ... to the national economy, the problems (and) imbalances in the housing market (and with) oil and gas prices at record levels.

"If we keep our fingers crossed and we'll stay out of a recession we'll still have job growth, but for the next six to nine months the growth rate is going to be very, very modest," he concludes.