Want a peek behind thecurrent economic malaise? Believe it or not, some industries areactually growing — some by double digits — at a time when we'resupposed to be thrilled over a 2 percent hitch in the GDP.

According to a recent study by Sageworks Inc.,a group that tracks financial information for private companies,some industries have actually experienced significant growthover the last 12 months. They are:

1. Technical and trade schools — 10.80%growth
2. Home healthcare services — 10.14% growth
3. Activities related to credit intermediation —9.06% growth
4. Pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing —8.95% growth
5. Educational support services — 7.80%growth
6. Outpatient care centers — 7.64% growth
7. Individual and family services — 6.88%growth
8. Data processing, hosting and related services— 6.84% growth
9. Software publishers — 5.91% growth
10. Community care facilities for the elderly —5.79% growth

I recently attended the Target Markets Program AdministratorsAssn. (TMPAA) meeting, which is less a convention or meetingin the traditional sense and more of a networking opportunity foragents, carriers and program administrators. Within an intimatesetting of 600 or so attendees, potential partners meet to discussthe nuts and bolts of current and future programs — which is prettymuch the wave of the future, given the current state of theproperty-casualty insurance market. Specialization has proven to benot just smart business, but a way to simply survive in businesstoday, for both agents/brokers and carriers. The agents I spokewith at the meeting testified to the fact that although theirbusiness growth was flat, things would have been even worse withouttheir specialty niches.

So if your current specialties are in stuff like construction,housing or manufacturing, you might want to give a closer look tothe 10 industries listed above. In today's economic climate, theirgrowth can go nowhere but up.