There should be plenty of employer-sanctioned partying this holiday season, according to the annual Holiday Party Survey by the consulting and research company Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

Nine out of 10 surveyed human-resources executives said their companies would hold holiday parties this year, up from 79 percent in 2006. Companies are twice as likely to increase their party budgets as to reduce them, and nearly three-quarters of companies plan to hold their celebrations off-site.

But, while more than two-thirds of the companies will use event planners or caterers, fewer than half plan to serve alcohol.

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE: About 20 percent of U.S. employees report that threats of violence or verbal intimidation have occurred at their workplaces, while about 10 percent say that workplace assaults or violent acts have taken place.

That's according to a nationwide Harris Interactive survey of 752 employees conducted this summer for The Marlin Co., a consulting firm that specializes in communication issues. The annual survey found that, while more companies are offering training classes to prevent workplace violence, only 43 percent of surveyed workers said their employers offered such training.

According to the survey, 28 percent of U.S. employees report they have been so stressed at work in the last year that they have yelled or screamed on the job, and 20 percent have been driven to tears.

TEEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP DIPS: There has been an apparent drop in teens' entrepreneurial spirit, though the reason may have more to do with an improving job market than a decrease in ambition.

Junior Achievement's sixth annual Interprise Poll on Entrepreneurship reported that the percentage of surveyed teens who say they want to start their own businesses someday has dropped from 70.9 percent to 66.9 percent in the last year — the first decline since 2004.

"Starting with the 2001 recession, the job market experienced considerable weakness for several years, and teen interest in becoming entrepreneurs climbed," explained Gerald Czarnecki of JA Worldwide. "When the job market improves, as it has in recent years, interest in starting a business seems to decline."