-By Mark Dolliver

NEW YORK In today's shrinking labor market, it's beginning to feel as though half the people still working are employed in asking the other half to say how they're cutting their spending. ABC News this week released its latest contribution to the genre, based on mid-November polling that asked specifically about consumers' holiday-shopping plans.

Like virtually all such recent surveys, this one found many consumers planning to spend less than they did in 2007's holiday-shopping season (51 percent said so) and few planning to spend more (8 percent). Looking more closely, the poll found 31 percent of respondents saying they'll spend "a lot less." Women were more likely than men to say they'll be cutting back (57 percent vs. 45 percent). Meanwhile, 56 percent of parents said they'd spend less on gifts this year -- "one of the sharpest pullbacks in any group," says ABC's report on its data.

The findings also rebutted the wishful notion that rising online shopping might take up the slack as shopping in brick-and-mortar stores declines this holiday season. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they'd buy gifts online this year, a number "essentially unchanged from last year." Moreover, "online shoppers are as likely as their offline counterparts to say they'll spend less this season." In yet another indication that upper-income consumers have been spooked by the financial-market meltdown, 46 percent of households in the $100,000-plus household-income bracket said they'll be cutting their holiday spending.

Elsewhere in the poll, 68 percent of respondents said they'd be waiting for sales before they do their buying, including 43 percent who said it's "very likely" they would do this. Men were more likely than women (74 percent vs. 60 percent) to say they'd likely wait for items to go on sale.