Independent agents and brokers, responding to a years-long softmarket, already have been doing more with less and are implementingfewer of the layoffs and other cost-cutting methods that so manyU.S. businesses have adopted in the past year in response to therecession.

In a recent onlinesurvey of almost 500 AA&B readers, nearly 36 percentreported taking no cost-cutting measures over the past year. Whenimplemented, the most common methods were salary freezes (33percent) followed by layoffs (18 percent) and benefits reduction orelimination (17 percent).

Respondents also cited economizing methods such as hiringfreezes, reducing work hours, expense review and reduction,“pressuring vendors to reduce rates,” and moving to less expensiveoffice space.