Loose change

THE FUTURE'S IN SALES: Sales and marketing professionals are expected to be a hot commodity through year-end. Management Recruiters International questioned 200 corporate executives about their most pressing hiring needs. Some 54 percent say they plan to increase their sales staffs before year-end, up 13 percent from the first half. Companies with the greatest need include those in health care, life sciences and pharmaceuticals.

SCANDAL SALARIES: Executives at companies being investigated for accounting irregularities earned an average of 70 percent more between 1999 and 2001 than CEOs at large companies in general. That's according to a report by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy.

TRUST INTACT: The recent series of corporate accounting scandals apparently hasn't shaken workers' trust in corporate leaders. In an online poll of 1,400 people by CareerBuilder, 52 percent said their bosses remain trustworthy. The figure was unchanged from a similar poll a year ago.

TALBOTS TAPS MEN: Long a mainstay for middle-age professional women, Talbots hopes it can appeal to their male counterparts. The clothing store chain will introduce a line of men's sport coats, cashmere sweaters, suede jackets and pants that will debut in a catalog supplement this holiday season. Talbots plans to test the clothes in six stores in 2003 and '04 before a bigger rollout in 2005.

DRIVEN TO DISTRACTION: Though the much-maligned cell phone gets the headlines for stealing drivers' "glance time" and causing abrupt lane weaving, experts say drivers have even more serious distractions. Behind the wheel, drivers send and receive pages, check sports scores on personal digital assistants and even sneak a glance at television.

-- Compiled by Cathy Keim from Times wires.

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