This is John Batchel. Colleague, Jim McTag, formerly of Barron's Washington editor, visited the Hallmark

Store in Lancaster County. Big business over the holidays and continuing. Big business at the

Hallmark Store. Jim reports very carefully. He then attaches this to seeing a sign saying part-time work, part-time work offered, part-time

employment offered, part-time employees sought. And he interprets that as a hesitation in the

economy. So paradox, lots of spending, but part-time work, not full-time work. Here's

Jim McTagg. More of this tonight. It is. I talked to the manager. She said they had a fabulous

Christmas season, and she said, surprisingly, because we had four inches of snow up here in Lancaster, and we

have the frigid temperatures, which you would think would keep a lot of people indoors,

a business looked pretty steady.

People were constantly entering and leaving the store.

It didn't become packed, but there was a flow.

So it tells me that the economy is still strong,

although I see signs of weak employment in the help wanted signs.

Today, for the first time in memory,

I saw a sign on the door of a giant supermarket that said,

part-time help wanted, not full-time. Three, four, five months ago, there were help-wanted signs on

almost every establishment in the county. Those days are over.