WHETHER you love or hate your company's annual holiday office party, it may not even happen this year.

As the financial crisis roils world markets and fears of a deep global recession grow, about one fifth of United States businesses are saying "no" to end-of-year festivities this holiday season, according to a survey due for release next Monday.

That would mark the lowest percentage of office parties seen in the 20 years since executive search firm Battalia Winston Amrop began its annual survey.

If you are one of the lucky ones to keep on celebrating, be aware that only 71 per cent of companies are offering booze this year - a cruel and unusual punishment, perhaps, given the sobering state of the economy.

"We've always looked at this as the year-end economic barometer," said Battalia Winston Amrop chief executive Dale Winston.

"People will still have parties, but it's the mood of the country - the mood of the country is not a celebratory mood."

This year, only 81 per cent of companies are throwing a party, fewer than during the holiday season that followed the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, or during the recession in 1991.

The survey found some 37 per cent of companies blamed the economy for more modest party plans this year - nearly double the number from last year.

Granted, it is hard to find something to celebrate lately.

One major US bank or investment firm after another has tumbled in recent weeks.

Taxpayers are grumbling about footing a US$700-billion (S$1.06-trillion) bill for a government bailout of the financial industry, and some fear their companies may not even be open for business in a couple of months.

Just last month, party planners said they were getting a more cautious view from clients, some of whom did not bat
an eyelid at spending up to hundreds of thousands of dollars on holiday parties in recent years.

But not all industries view the downturn the same way. If you work in the pharmaceutical industry, you are more
likely to party than the folk working in financial services and manufacturing, the report found.

It cited 85 per cent of health-care or pharmaceutical companies saying the economy would have no impact on their
holiday party plans, compared with 42 per cent in financial services and manufacturing.- REUTERS