The news on jobs keeps improving.

Weekly jobless claims moved sharply lower, while inflation remained tame and housing starts unexpectedly weakened in December, according to a set of data painting a mixed picture of the economic recovery.

Weekly unemployment benefit applications dropped to 352,000, the fewest in nearly four years.

The buzz out there is that manufacturing is a big part of the rebound.

It will be interesting to see how the improving job situation will affect the 2012 presidential election.

Slowly but surely, we’re starting to see a rebound in the US economy. Manufacturing is picking up, consumers are spending more and companies are starting to hire. The unemployment rate has now dropped to 8.5% after the economy added 200,000 jobs in December.

The jobs report builds on a several new indicators pointing toward an economy on the upswing.

The government reported Thursday that claims for unemployment benefits declined in the final week of December, moving the average over the past four weeks to its lowest level in more than three years.

The Institute for Supply Management reported this week that its employment index for December was 55.1, the highest reading since June. A reading above 50 means that more companies are creating jobs than cutting them.

The nation’s factories have added more than 300,000 jobs since the beginning of 2010 — about 13 percent of what was lost during the recession — marking the first sustained increase in manufacturing employment since 1997, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Auto sales in December were up, continuing their substantial improvement from the summer. And for all of 2011, vehicle sales rose 10 percent.

The auto numbers are critical. For example, Chrysler sales keep increasing and the company is adding jobs.

The economy has added jobs for 15 consecutive months so there is reason for continued optimism.

If you’ve been out of work and have given up, go back and start looking again.

The good economic news continues.

Unemployment rates fell in 43 states in November, the most states to report such declines in eight years.

The falling state rates reflect the brightening jobs picture nationally. The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in November to 8.6%, lowest since March 2009. The economy has generated 100,000 or more jobs five months in a row — first time that’s happened since 2006, before the Great Recession.

Only three states reported higher unemployment rates in November, the Labor Department said Tuesday. Four showed no change.

Other good news today came in the form of housing starts. People aren’t buying home so many people are renting. Now the construction market is responding as more apartment buildings are going to be built. This might be good news for construction workers around the country.

Are we finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel?

Last month the unemployment rate dipped to 8.6%, and now we continue to see better numbers as it relates to weekly jobless claims.

The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits fell to the lowest level in three-and-a-half years last week, the latest indication that a weak labor market is improving.

Initial jobless claims fell by 19,000 to a seasonally adjusted 366,000 in the week ended Dec. 10, the Labor Department said Thursday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast claims would climb by 9,000 to 390,000.

“This is unexpectedly great news,” said Ian Shepherdson, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics. “If claims can remain at this level, payroll growth will strengthen markedly within a month or so.”

For the week ended Dec. 3, claims were revised up slightly to 385,000 from an originally reported 381,000. Still, new claims have fallen by 19,000 two weeks in a row.

The four-week moving average of new jobless claims, closely watched by economists because it smooths out volatile weekly data, dropped last week by 6,500 to 387,750. That is the lowest level since July 2008.

The four-week average has remained below 400,000 for five consecutive weeks, one sign the economy is adding more jobs than it is shedding.

If you’ve been looking for a job but have become discouraged, now is the time to get back out there and redouble your efforts. The economy has some momentum, and economic optimism is returning. Right now Europe seems like the most important headwind for economic growth, but conditions here at home are getting better. Car sales are improving and that is one of the factors driving economic activity.

AOL cut 20 percent of its workforce today, eliminating 950 jobs in the U.S. and India. Last year, the company cut 2,300 employees during its first round of layoffs. This year’s round of layoffs was aimed at trimming the budget, getting rid of positions that no longer serve a purpose, and eliminating jobs that overlapped with the Huffington Post website, which AOL acquired just days ago. None of the 250 Huffington Post employees that joined AOL lost their jobs. Instead, 200 employees who work for AOL’s media and technology groups lost their jobs, and 750 employees in India.

In the U.S., AOL laid off reporters and editors who worked for its travel site and business, personal finance sites Daily Finance and Wallet Pop. It also cut across its news and politics sites, including Politics Daily, according to people familiar with the matter. Employees who were laid off started packing up their belongings on Thursday, a person familiar with the matter said.

The operations in India are in part a vestige of AOL’s old business as an Internet service provider, starting with call center outsourcing into 2002 and later changing into a business operations center. Recently, the group focused more on tech and financial support as well as functions such as advertising operations.

Although AOL acquired the Huffington Post for $315 million, the company is still on shaky ground. According to WSJ, AOL shares are trading at their lowest levels since the company split off from Time Warner Inc. in December 2009. Shares of AOL were off 34 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $19 in Thursday 4 p.m. composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange. And according to research firm eMarketer Inc., AOL’s ad revenues dropped 26 percent in 2010, while the overall online ad market grew around 14 percent. AOL has steadily lost market share to rivals Google Inc. and Facebook Inc.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he expects AOL’s online advertising business to start growing again during the second half of the year.

“AOL remains in the middle of the disruption that the Internet is causing and we are starting to move from being a disrupted brand to a brand that is leading the disruption,” Mr. Armstrong said in his memo. “The changes we are making are not easy, but they are the right changes for the long-term health of the company, the brand, and for our employees.”

After all is said and done, AOL will employ about 4,000 people. This figure does not include staff that currently work for AOL’s local Patch news sites, which recently hired 1,200 new employees.

Before you decide to relocate to another state because you read somewhere that it’s the “best state to find a job,” it’s best to do your homework. This means, find out what types of jobs are actually available and why. You might be surprised by what you discover.

The Huffington Post published an article today titled “The Top 11 States To find a Job,” but it turns out that many of the jobs are low-paying and mostly available in three main industries: agriculture, natural resource extraction, and federal government work.

Gallup has published its latest Job Creation Index, providing a state-by-state comparison of which states predominately hired, fired, and stood pat in 2010. As the U.S. job market struggled, the highest-ranking states relied on one of three industries: agriculture, natural resource extraction, or federal government work.

But not all jobs — or state economies — are created equal, and many of the states on Gallup’s list often create low-paying jobs. Arkansas, for example, ranks fifth best on Gallup’s Job Creation Index, but its median household income is a $39,392, good for second-worst in the country. Maryland, on the other hand, might rank lower on the index, but it has the third-highest median household income in the country.

Gallup based its rankings on nearly 200,000 interviews conducted only with employed adults. Interviewees said whether their company was hiring, not changing in size or laying off workers. The Job Creation Index number represents that difference between “the percentage reporting an expansion and the percentage reporting a reduction in their workforces.”

If you’re still interested in finding out what the states on the Gallup list have to offer, the 11 states below made the cut:

11. Pennsylvania
2010 Job Creation Index: 13
Percent Hiring: 31.2
Percent Letting Go: 18.8
Unemployment Rate: 8.5% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $39,578 (19/51)
Median Household Income: $49,829 (26/51)

10. Iowa
2010 Job Creation Index: 13
Percent Hiring: 29.9
Percent Letting Go: 17.1
Unemployment Rate: 6.1% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $36,751 (28/51)
Median Household Income: $50,422 (23/51)

9. Oklahoma
2010 Job Creation Index: 14
Percent Hiring: 31.7
Percent Letting Go: 18.0
Unemployment Rate: 6.8% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $35,268 (34/51)
Median Household Income: $45,507 (40/51)

8. Texas
2010 Job Creation Index: 14
Percent Hiring: 32.1
Percent Letting Go: 18.1
Unemployment Rate: 8.3% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $36,484 (29/51)
Median Household Income: $47,143 (35/51)

7. Maryland
2010 Job Creation Index: 15
Percent Hiring: 34.3
Percent Letting Go: 19.1
Unemployment Rate: 7.4% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $48,285 (5/51)
Median Household Income: $65,183 (3/51)

6. West Virginia
2010 Job Creation Index: 15
Percent Hiring: 32.5
Percent Letting Go: 17.1
Unemployment Rate: 9.7% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $32,219 (45/51)
Median Household Income: $40,627 (49/51)

5. Arkansas
2010 Job Creation Index: 17
Percent Hiring: 32.5
Percent Letting Go: 16.0
Unemployment Rate: 7.9% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $31,946 (46/51)
Median Household Income: $39,392 (50/51)

4. Alaska
2010 Job Creation Index: 19
Percent Hiring: 35.1
Percent Letting Go: 15.8
Unemployment Rate: 7.9% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $42,603 (10/51)
Median Household Income: $63,505 (5/51)

3. South Dakota
2010 Job Creation Index: 21
Percent Hiring: 29.9
Percent Letting Go: 8.9
Unemployment Rate: 4.7% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $36,935 (26/51)
Median Household Income: $48,416 (29/51)

2. Washington D.C.
2010 Job Creation Index: 21
Percent Hiring: 29.9
Percent Letting Go: 8.9
Unemployment Rate: 4.7% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $36,935 (26/51)
Median Household Income: $48,416 (29/51)

1. South Dakota
2010 Job Creation Index: 29
Percent Hiring: 37.6
Percent Letting Go: 8.2
Unemployment Rate: 3.8% (Dec. 2010)
GDP Per Capita: $39,530 (20/51)
Median Household Income: $49,450 (27/51)

Ah, 2004. U.S. unemployment was a mere 6% and the average home price reached $264,540. 2004 was a time when many people lived well and earned more. Well today, many industries are either down and out, or out altogether, and many cities throughout the U.S. still have high unemployment rates. Silicon Valley is an exception.

Bloomberg reports that Silicon Valley employers rebounded from the recession by adding 12,300 positions in 2010, though the total number of jobs is only back to 2004 levels, according to an annual economic report on the region.

The study, released Februray 14, 2011, by Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network and Silicon Valley Community Foundation, also found per- capita income stabilized last year, at $62,400 — the same level as in 2005. Meanwhile, the region is still reeling from cutbacks in government jobs and programs, according to the report.

“The good news is the private sector is doing its thing — don’t ask me how they’re doing it, they’re defying gravity,” Russell Hancock, chief executive officer of Joint Venture, a nonprofit group in San Jose, California, said in an interview. “The problem is the public sector is slammed.”

Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and a new crop of social- networking startups are stepping up hiring, helping offset government cuts and the shift of computer-hardware jobs to lower-cost regions. Google is adding 6,000 jobs worldwide this year, and Facebook plans to boost its workforce by 50 percent annually. The social-networking giant will move its headquarters to Menlo Park from nearby Palo Alto to accommodate the growth.

One of the companies adding employees was Apple, Inc. The Cupertino, California-based company increased its workforce by 36 percent California-based to 46,600 as of September 2010. Apple also reported having 2,800 full-time temporary workers and contractors around this time, up from 2,500 in 2009.

Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project, promotes jobs for lower-wage workers. She, along with worker advocates, claims that employers are screening out job applicants who are unemployed.

Owens said a telephone company in Atlanta, which she didn’t identify, ran an help-wanted ad saying only the employed should apply. Jobless applicants were also turned down by a temporary staffing firm and a Texas recruiter because they were unemployed, she said.

“What’s startling are the lengths to which companies are going to communicate this such as including the phrase ‘unemployed candidates will not be considered’ right in the posting,” she said.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is investigating similar claims after media reports revealed that some employers are keeping applicants without jobs from being considered. The practice has also raised concerns about discrimination. Still, many others feel that the practice just doesn’t exist.

The Society for Human Resource Management, which represents more than 250,000 personnel managers, is “unaware of widespread recruiting practices” that exclude the jobless, said Fernan R. Cepero, representing the Alexandria, Virginia-based group.

Applicants who have been out of work may struggle because their skills are more obsolete than those who are employed, said Cepero, vice president for human resources at the YMCA of Greater Rochester in New York.

If you feel you have been discriminated against by an employer, contact the EEOC at 1.800.669.4000 or email info@eeoc.gov.

You may have noticed that there are fewer people working at reception desks, in administrative positions, at checkout counters, and in factories, and more computers are popping up in their place. Self-service check-out, and computers and robots that can do everything from sort mail to assemble a car, have all but eliminated millions of jobs around the world—and the trend is expected to continue.

A whopping  300,000 administrative jobs alone disappeared between 2004-2009 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and it projects “continued contraction throughout the next decade.” File clerk positions are expected to decline 23 percent, and according to a recent Forbes article, technology has put postal service mail sorters on the chopping block as well. After losing nearly 57,000 jobs between 2004 and 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects a further 30 percent decline in this occupation by 2018.

“The kinds of jobs that are disappearing are the jobs that pay really well (for) relatively unskilled workers,” says Harry Holzer, Ph.D., Georgetown University economist and co-author of “Where Are All The Good Jobs Going.” He lists manufacturing jobs as a leading example, saying that well-paid assembly jobs that require modest training and only a high school diploma or less are a thing of the past.

So where did all the good jobs go? “The combination of technological advancement and off-shoring has shrunk these jobs,” says Holzer.

The following list represents only a few of the world’s dying occupations. Many more are expected to kick the bucket in the coming years.

-Computer Operators: declined by 31% from 2004-2009

-Radio Operators: declined by 43% from 2004-2009

-Carpenters: declined by 17% from 2004-2009

-Stage Performers: declined by 61% from 2004-2009

-Holistic Healers: declined by 44% from 2004-2009

-Telemarketers: 15% decline by 2018

-Door-To-Door Salespeople: 11% decline by 2018

-Photo Processors: 24% decline by 2018

-Seamstress: 34% decline by 2018

Although economists predicted that the unemployment rate would increase to 9.5 percent, the unemployment rate went in the other direction, dropping 9 percent last month from 9.4 percent in December. Many would consider this good news, but a number of skeptical analysts don’t see it this way. The government reported that 36,000 new jobs were created last month—the fewest in four months. And analysts say this might not be a sign that that economic recovery is picking up pace.

Jim O’Sullivan, chief economist at MF Global, said that the market is discounting the big drop in the unemployment rate. “The information value of this report is limited because it was obviously affected by the weather,” he said.

The unemployment rate fell despite the small number of new jobs because some people who are out of work gave up looking for a new job, Mr. O’Sullivan said.

Andrew Wilkinson, senior market analyst at Interactive Brokers, said: “It’s extremely difficult to see beyond the snow to understand today’s data.”

Fortunately, during a recent speech the National Press Club, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the Fed expects the economy to improve this year and inflation to remain low.