The economy may be improving, but that's not necessarily reflected in the job market for meeting planners, which still appears to be in a slump. The good news is, it hasn't gotten worse."There's been a small increase in activity for full-time planners, and there's still demand for independent contractors, but it hasn't changed in the last year," says Dawn Penfold, president of the Meeting Candidate Network in New York City, a meetings-focused executive search firm. "It's better than two years ago, but still worse than five years ago." This means employed planners are going to have to continue to do more with less. And the increase in the number of meetings being held is accelerating faster than are budgets. Penfold also said meeting planners' average salaries have remained flat, meaning they're still down 15 to 20 percent from 2000, although certain segments, namely financial and pharmaceutical, are doing better than others. But there are a few signs that things finally are moving in the right direction. Penfold had more than 30 openings on her job board at the end of December, compared with only a handful for the last three years. "That means jobs are out there," she says, "and there was an increase in activity in January, which was very busy."