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"The unemployment rate dropped sharply last month, but employers continued cutting jobs in January as businesses remained insecure about the economic outlook. The jobless rate fell to 9.7% from 10% in December, the Labor Department said Friday, because its survey of households found more people landed jobs than entered or returned to the labor market. But a separate survey of employers, which counts how many workers are added or cut from payrolls, found that 20,000 jobs were eliminated last month. And revisions to last year's data found far more jobs were lost over the 12 months than previously predicted."

"Today, with unemployment rates hovering at 10%, and all our worries about the job market rooted in the moment, we are in danger of failing to see an important longer-term trend: More Americans are working as consultants or freelancers, either having given up or been forced out of the salaried world of 9 to 5."

"Before Andree Bogaerts returned to work as an attorney last fall after nine years at home with her three children, she says, she took a little training first-"a crash course in Excel spreadsheets from my 12-year-old daughter." "

"When James Watson was 24 years old, he spent more time thinking about women than work, according to his memoir "Genes, Girls and Gamow." His hair was unkempt and his letters home were full of references to "wine-soaked lunches." But when Mr. Watson wasn't chasing after girls, he was hard at work in his Cambridge lab, trying to puzzle out the structure of DNA. In 1953, when Mr. Watson was only 25, he co-wrote one of the most important scientific papers of all time."

"Q: As a LinkedIn user, I am seeing many people stating, "looking for a job opportunity" and other similar statements in their profile or status. If you are unemployed, is it good to announce that you are looking for a job this way, or does it potentially damage your image?"

CIO - When you belong to several social networking sites-Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter-(and don't we all?), keeping up with them can seem overwhelming. Tweet this. Update that status. Share a link here.If you've resolved to get more organized this year, consider these seven tools that save time and streamline your social networking interactions. My picks: For easy content sharing across platforms, be sure to check out is the browser plugin Shareaholic. And for simple synching and updating of multiple accounts, Atomkeep seems to be the most efficient.

Here's an important New Year's resolution for job hunters: Sweat the small stuff.

At least twice a month throughout the recession, headhunters have dangled job opportunities in front of Ryan McAllister, an actuary for Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. in Novato, Calif. "If I were ever unhappy with my employer, I could pick up the phone and find something else very quickly," says the 28-year-old Mr. McAllister. He joined the high-net-worth property and casualty insurer after graduating in 2005 from the University of California at Davis, with a bachelor's degree in applied mathematics.

If LinkedIn Corp. wants to avoid being swamped by social-networking giant Facebook Inc., it will have to convince users like Jackie Nejaime to log in more often they do now.

If you're gearing up for a job search now as an undergraduate or returning student, there are several bright spots where new jobs and promising career paths are expected to emerge in the next few years.

Recent economic events have forced colleges and universities to streamline their academic offerings congruent with a more pragmatic cost-benefit approach, usually at the expense of their liberal-arts programs. When a foreign-language or philosophy department graduates only a few students per year, there is no financial argument to be made for keeping the department intact. Traditional reasoning about the enrichment of the "student as future citizen" can only go so far when parents who pay the tuition or students taking the courses can't see a bottom line in the form of a lucrative job after graduation.

Realistically, your husband's chances of "going back" to the large company are minimal, at best, say the experts. "Companies are a lot like human beings," says Al Stewart, president of Business Mentors, Inc., a career management consulting firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

With the holidays here, you may be inclined to put your job-search efforts on hold while you celebrate. But career advisers say laid-off professionals should keep at it-as "bah hum bug" as that may seem-because the season offers some unique opportunities to boost your odds of success.

Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Just before the current recession set in, 35-year-old Samuel Peery quit a stable job as a vice president of marketing to start his own social-networking company. Unable to secure funding for his start-up, Mr. Peery, of Lehi, Utah, was left unemployed, with an unrealized dream.

High unemployment is spreading in New York City beyond the poorest neighborhoods to once-secure middle-class enclaves, where some residents are falling behind on rent and mortgage payments.

I am driven, hard working and smart, but I lack the self-discipline to look for a job. I have hired a career counselor, but I still can't muster the motivation I need and am always procrastinating. Do you have any advice for being a more effective job seeker?

If you're gearing up for a job search now as an undergraduate or returning student, there are several bright spots where new jobs and promising career paths are expected to emerge in the next few years.

Even when the U.S. labor market finally starts adding more workers than it loses, many of the unemployed will find that the types of jobs they once had simply don't exist anymore.

Many workers who lost jobs in the hardest-hit sectors of the economy are now looking to change careers. But crafting a résumé that shows the benefits of hiring an industry outsider can be challenging.

"For years, higher education was touted as a safe path to professional and financial success. Easy money, in the form of student loans, flowed to help parents and students finance degrees, with the implication that in the long run, a bachelor's degree was a good bet. Graduates, it has long been argued, would be able to build solid careers that would earn them far more than their high-school educated counterparts."