Some good hiring news!

You don’t have to look very hard these days to find negative news about the economy and the so-called recovery. Phrases like “double-dip recession” have employers walking on egg shells when it comes to hiring, leaving unemployed workers and struggling recruiters wondering if and when relief will come.

Well, just to prove that it’s not all doom and gloom out there, Top Echelon Contracting has found a few promising reports regarding the economy and hiring:

• USA Today recently reported that new unemployment claims have decreased for the second week in a row. Better yet, the four-week average of claims, which is a less volatile number, has also declined by 2,500, representing the first decrease in this average after four straight increases. The article also mentions what Top Echelon Contracting reported in a previous blog post, that productivity is declining, indicating that employers may have to hire rather than continuing to put more pressure on their current workers.
• A www.CNNMoney.com shows that while this recovery may be moving slower than everyone would have hoped, it is, as the title of the article states, the “Strongest jobs recovery in decades. Seriously.” The article shows that payrolls in the most recent recession started growing in November and that the economy has added jobs every month since then. In comparison, the economy lost nearly 300,000 jobs after the 1990-91 recession ended, and the 2001 recession was followed by a nearly two-year “jobless recovery.” The problem, though, is that far more jobs were lost in this recession than in those previous downturns, but the report still offers a bit of a brighter perspective than a lot of the news out there.
• Also from www.CNNMoney.com, manufacturing is continuing its growth. We have reported numerous times about how manufacturing is one of the industries leading the recovery, and this article shows the trend is continuing. According to the article, the manufacturing index was at 56.3 in August, which was a increase over July and was ahead of expectations. Anything above 50 on the index represents growth.

So while we’re not out of the woods yet, hopefully these nuggets of positive news will give you a little boost to start the month!