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Consumers are becoming more cost conscious when it comes to what they eat at restaurants, enabling them to do so more, according to a new survey from AlixPartners.

According to the survey, consumers’ expected spending per meal at a restaurant has decreased by 20 percent to $11.49 when compared with data from the first quarter of 2009. The survey added that spending was expected to decrease in the next 12 months by an additional 3 percent.

The reason for the additional decline in spending, the survey added, was because of an increased frugalness from diners with a preference for cheaper eats.

"Customers have been trained to take specials for granted," said Adam Werner, a director at AlixPartners and one of the authors of the study. "They have recalibrated their spending expectations based on the now-ubiquitous $5 sandwich and the $10 meal, and restaurants that aren’t marching in the promotions parade risk being left behind."

The survey also showed that being thrifty when it came to cheaper meals had enabled many consumers to maintain, if not increase, how many meals they ordered out. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they ate out at least once a week for the past 12 months, up from the 52 percent who reported doing so in data collected during Q1 2009.

Looking for discounted meals at restaurants could be a solution for families who are in debt counseling to save money while not making significant adjustments to their condition of living.

Workers dealing with debt counseling have the best chance at getting hired in the South, while employees in the West have the greatest chance of being laid off from their job, according to a Gallup survey released last week.

The Southern region reported the highest percentage of job vacancies in October at 29 percent, a 4 percent increase from September’s figures. The East saw a 3 percent jump in the amount of jobs hiring to have the second highest rate at 27 percent.

The South also was part of a three-way tie for the lowest rate of employers with the Midwest and East at 23 percent.

The West was shown to have the least favorable employment statistics. The survey found that the region had the lowest rate of jobs that were hiring workers at 23 percent, as well as the highest rate of jobs letting peoples go at 25 percent.

Despite the less-than-stellar results in the West, the survey noted that the job situation had "improved significantly" in every region compared to conditions earlier in 2009.

"Still, this means hiring and layoffs remain no better than they were last November as the fallout of the financial crisis was still unfolding," the report read. "And job-market conditions are nowhere near where they were as the recession was getting underway in January 2008.

Consumers who are dealing with debt counseling as a result of the economic downturn received more good news implying that recession may finally be a thing of the past, as initial unemployment claims continued to decline during October.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance Weekly Claims Report, initial unemployment claims decreased to 512,000 during the week ending October 31, 20,000 fewer than the initial claims recorded one week earlier.

Additionally, the report found that while the insured unemployment rate remained steady at 4.4 percent during the week ending October 24 compared to the week prior, the number of people using unemployment insurance had decreased to 5.74 million, 68,000 fewer than the week prior.

The general decrease in unemployment figures comes one week after the U.S Department of Commerce revealed that the nation’s gross domestic product had expanded by 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009.

Juan Morales, the managing partner of Stanton Chase International’s Miami office, said that while it was "impossible" to confirm a correlation between the GDP and job growth because of the recent recession, the two had been connected in the past.

"As you know, this is one of the worst recessions our country has ever seen," he said. "However, if you look back at other recessions, and if you look at how other countries have done, job growth usually occurs about six months after some GDP growth."

A new report has revealed that while employment figures continued to decline into the fourth quarter of 2009, conditions steadily improved in what is likely a positive sign for those worrying about their finances as they consolidate debt.

According to ADP’s National Employment Report, nonfarm private employment figures decreased by 203,000 from September to October on a seasonally adjusted basis. The decline was 24,000 less than the revised employment decrease of 227,000 found from August to September, representing the seventh straight month that the decline in employment was less than the month prior.

The report also found that the largest decline in employment had been seen in the goods-providing sector, which lost 117,000 jobs. The service-providing sector saw the second largest decline, losing 86,000 jobs while the manufacturing sector saw a drop of 65,000.

However, despite the losses, some experts have seen a reversal in some sectors that are now looking to add workers.

"Since Labor Day, we have seen a dramatic increase at the executive level in start-ups to publicly traded companies in the information technology and clean technology sectors," said Charley Polachi, a partner at Polachi Access Executive Search Firm.

He added that the increase had been more pronounced on the West Coast than the East Coast, and that similar growth had been seen in the tech market for general management and sales at the executive level as well.

Americans are sick of consolidating debt and want to change their financial ways, but unsure of how exactly to do so, according to a new survey from a financial advice company.

According to the Tigrent 2009 Financial Independence Survey, 61 percent of Americans said they were not comfortable with their current financial situation.

However, many more said they would like to make changes to fix their situation, as about 80 percent of Americans said they would be "ready and willing to make sacrifices in the short-term in order to become financially independent in the long-run." Additionally, 72 percent said they would go so far as reinvent themselves in order to increase their earning power.

When asked why they had not made the financial moves they desired to, most reference their lack of monetary education. Fifty-five percent said they had "insufficient" knowledge about investing, while 47 percent said they didn’t have the time to learn what was needed to change their ways.

Tigrent CEO Charles M. Peck said that while the survey demonstrated a willingness to change so their monetary status improved, Americans needed to make it a point to learn more about their finances.

"Today, it is understood that we all have to be more resourceful about our own wealth intelligence, and the goal should be a fuller life, not just a full-time job," he said.

A new report by the Obama administration estimating that the $787 billion stimulus bill has either created or saved 650,000 jobs this year will come as good news to those in consumer debt counseling and are looking for work.

According to the White House report, the positive results were culled from statements submitted by "tens of thousands of state and local governments, private companies, colleges and universities and community organizations across the country" on how their stimulus funding had been spent through September 30.

Altogether, their findings showed that at least 650,000 jobs had been created or saved so far, and that many more were on the horizon.

"We’re solidly on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs by the time this program winds down," Jared Bernstein, an economist for the Obama administration told CNN. "There’s a lot more ammunition in that Recovery Act. The stimulus package is absolutely working, both in [gross domestic product] terms and in terms of saving or creating jobs."

However, a report from the Associated Press casts doubt on the White House findings, saying that it had overstated the amount of jobs saved by the stimulus by "thousands." The Republican National Committee also took issue with the White House report, questioning what the true definition of a "saved job" was, according to USA Today.