An important observation: The demand for competent managers in the planning field has always been strong, and is growing stronger. As new technology develops and regulations become ever more complex, the need for people who can oversee a project and shepherd it through to completion is increasing. Some aspects of public-sector budgets differ from other workplaces. For example, a local planning department's budget will usually assign some amount of money to "current planning". The planning work differs from other "programs" or "projects"; the department may have no idea how many applications it will receive during any given year, and thus estimating workload and budget needs becomes very difficult. In the private sector, the age-old truth is that "time equals money." A client agrees to pay the planners to firm some amount of money, in exchange for some sort of product.