It looks like 2012 is starting out with a bang and the job market is going coming into the New Year with a bang. Since we can obviously all use some good news about he economy this year, lets look at it in more detail.

It looks like the number of people who are in search of unemployment benefits from the government have gone down significantly. How significantly? Well, the numbers are down to a four-year low, and that is good news not only for the taxpayers, but also for the job market in general. Want even more good news? Well, these are not the only signs of an economy on the upswing.

The inflation rate has remained relatively low, which means that the cost of the basic items needed for living have remained relatively steady. That is good news if you want to be able to eat in the near (or the long-term) future. It is also good news for the interest rates on major purchases, including the home loans.  In addition for the first time in three years the home market is also on the uptick, which means that there is some hope for the long term.  There is even some good news in lending. The banks are lending more than they have been in the last couple of years.

While this news is good, on the whole, many economic professionals are still warning people to say that the economy is completely on the road to recovery, as there are a number of major hurdles that still need to be overcome in order for us to get to a stable place. The first thing that we need to do is take care of the unemployment rate. The rate is currently at about 8.5 percent, which leaves millions of Americans out of work, and this number does not also take into account the fact that a certain number of people have simply stopped looking for work completely.

That is not to say that there have not also been some significant losses to the job market with the recent loss of the seasonal workers who were let go at the end of the holidays. If you did not catch our seasonal layoffs, here is an excerpt from our earlier coverage:

“Once again we have news that puts us into the good news, bad news situation when it comes to unemployment. The bad news is that there was an uptick this week in the number of people who were filing for unemployment insurance benefits. That means more people are out of a job.

The good news is that these jobs that were cut primarily were seasonal retail hires. As anyone who has worked in retail over the holidays can tell you droves of employees are brought on, with a temporary status, to help employers get through the busy season. So these people who are at out of work at least knew that their positions would be gone after the holiday rush.

The number of applications rose to the highest numbers in the previous six weeks. The actual raise was by about 24,000 applications, which brings the seasonally adjusted number to 399,000 applications according to the U.S. Department of Labor.”

So on the whole you can see how the growth is hopeful, but it should be tempered.