Schools, businesses, and health care facilities in certain areas also reported sizable drops in their numbers.

In the season just ended, only 7 new musicals and musical revivals opened on Broadway, a sizable drop from the 15 of the previous season.

The decline in food prices, which was six-tenths of 1 percent, was the first sizable drop since last summer's drought.

Assets of the tax-exempt funds, which totaled $88.5 billion a week ago, now total $87.6 billion, which he called "quite a sizable drop."

For example, the economic meltdown in Asia has translated into a sizable drop in demand for American products.

Another report today showing a sizable drop in the number of first-time claims for unemployment benefits last week was mostly ignored.

Stock prices swung in a wide arc yesterday, ending with a sizable drop on fading hopes of further interest-rate cuts.

The sizable drop, attributed to a sharp increase in the national sales tax, dashed hopes for an early recovery from the nation's long economic slump.

Gold prices hung near $460 an ounce after a sizable drop in midweek.

When they first noted a sizable drop in the sale of business suits, designers and retailers suddenly assumed we were all now living for the weekend.