Trivia: Last Year vs This Year

Last year on this forum for the first half of Nov., 33 threads were started wanting to sell embroidery machines...and there were quite a few threads started by people looking to buy a machine.
So far this Nov., 69 threads have been started by people wanting to sell their embroidery machines and far fewer threads are from people wanting to buy machines.

Yet when I talk to my machine rep he swears business is good and more new people are getting into the industry this year than last? What is your perception on growth in the embroidery industry?

This is not just a trivial pursuit type question for me, to plan my company's hiring and policies for the coming year it helps to know if the industry is growing or shrinking. Is it in consolidation mode, meaning I will be dealing with more "old hands" who will know what they are doing... or is it in new person growth somehow and my cs reps will be dealing with alot of basic questions, meaning I will need more cs reps to handle the additional time it takes to teach clients.