Nearly 70 percent of the executives surveyed said their work forces would remain at current levels or would have modest increases.

Fifty-five percent of the 484 senior executives surveyed last week praised the Federal Reserve for pushing up interest rates in recent months as a precaution against future inflation.

Some 89 percent of the chief executives surveyed in 1999 by Robert Half International, a staffing service, said that companies had stepped up efforts to encourage creativity in their employees.

"When more than 80 percent of the executives surveyed in the telecom industry are seeking to increase their staffs, it's inevitable that they have to enlarge the pool of candidates."

A 2003 survey by Management Recruiter International stated that fifty percent of executives surveyed didn't have plans to take a vacation.

On the positive side, the study found that the overwhelming majority of the executives surveyed said improving product quality was their top priority.

Over all, 40 percent of the chief executives surveyed said they were either somewhat concerned or extremely concerned about global warming.

Roughly 75 percent of the executives surveyed recommend that individual Americans check to make sure their banks' computers are prepared for 2000.

The executives surveyed said that new orders for their merchandise were particularly strong.

While about one-quarter of the executives surveyed said they had indeed changed their spending plans by the end of June, not very many fingered Sarbanes-Oxley as the culprit.