Some of the jobs that have disappeared through this recession are gone forever, it seems. Even when the market turns, and even gains momentum, we could be stuck with a fairly weak employment market for a while. The recovery will take longer than we'd like, putting more distance between now and the top of the next market run. We've lost 7.2 million jobs since December 2007, and the predictions of some economists that we'll get them back by 2014 may actually seem optimistic.

Unemployment is at 9.8%, and it's expected to clear 10% early next year. Then, we have the specter of a jobless recovery with which to contend. "Full employment" is often considered to be an unemployment rate of 4% to 5%, but it could be a while before we get there. The last downturn, following the dotcom bust, resulted in a peak unemployment rate of 6.3% in 2003 ... and we're already well past that.

Why is the recovery going to be such a grind? Check out the four major reasons after the jump.

Unemployment is at its highest level since 1983, hitting 9.8% last month. The Department of Labor announced that 263,000 jobs were lost. This follows a revised loss of 201,000 jobs in August (lower than first reported). Nobody expected the August unemployment reprieve to last, and the increase suggests that the forecasted 10.3% unemployment rate for early next year will be realized.

Originally, the forecasted unemployment drop for September was 175,000, according to Bloomberg News, with individual economists surveyed reporting in a range of 100,000 to 260,000.

U.S. Initial jobless claims fell for a forth consecutive week. Claims dropped by 1,000 to 301,000 for the week ended January 19 -- the lowest weekly total since late September -- and markedly below the 321,000 consensus estimate, the U.S. Labor Department announced Thursday. Claims for the previous week were revised up 1,000 to 302,000.

Also, the four-week moving average dropped 14,000 to 314,750. Economists view the four-week average as a better indicator of unemployment conditions, as it smooths-out anomalies for strikes, holidays and other idiosyncratic events.

Regarding states, the largest increases in initial claims for the week ending Jan. 12 were in California, +27,194; Florida, +8,496; Tennessee, +6,143; Puerto Rico +4,138; and Texas, +3,793. The largest decreases were in New York, -25,349; North Carolina,-4,911; Georgia,-4,858; Wisconsin,-3,364; and Massachusetts,-2,970.

The number of continuing claims decreased by 75,000 to 2.672 million from a revised 2.747 million for the week ended January 12, the latest period for which figures were available.

Economic Analysis: Overall, another surprisingly low weekly jobless claims statistic: companies are not hiring, but they are not, so far, laying-off employees in large numbers either -- a cautious stance that perhaps reflects the uncertain future direction of the U.S. economy. Still, it's important to remember that the weekly average is volatile -- a major reason why economists follow the more-indicative four-week moving average. Also, the four-week moving average, while it declined this week to 314,750, is still at elevated levels and is a 'data point of concern' for the U.S. economy. The U.S. Federal Reserve will keep an eye on the four-week average: if it drifts above 350,000 and remains there, that would suggest a substantial softening of labor market conditions.

Employment agencies are generally a good economic indicator. General Employment Enterprises Inc. (Amex: JOB) specializes in permanent job placements for professionals in accounting, engineering and information technology, all fields where one would expect to find high demand for qualified applicants. General Employment Enterprises revenue is down a bit in both 4Q 2007 as well as FY 2007. Net income decreased slightly, and diluted EPS remained flat at $0.06. Such results do not bode well for national employment trends if companies are reluctant to hire accounting, engineering and IT professionals, even on a temporary basis.

CEO Herbert Imhoff stated that the decline in contract services (temporary employment) revenues in 4Q was an improvement over the larger decline in 3Q. But the fact that companies have fewer slots for contract employees is a troubling sign. CEO Imhoff also stated it is more difficult to find qualified applicants in the company's specialized fields. One would think that the company would have little difficulty finding placements for qualified candidates. This does not seem to be the case. General Employment is opening another office in California to offer both permanent placements and contract/contract-to-hire opportunities. The company is increasing its advertising budget for job boards and telephone marketing in an effort to enlarge its pool of qualified applicants.

The company has declared a special year-end dividend of $0.10 per share for the second year in a row, but that is merely a stop gap measure designed to placate shareholders who are not seeing any appreciation in the value of their investment. The stock currently trades at $1.65 with much room for improvement.

It's not every person who can be satisfied by just hanging around in their same old job. Some of us folks are continually driven to seek more and better situations for ourselves. So how do you speed your trek up the ladder of success? What are the secrets to upward mobility? How can an ordinary person get extraordinary results, especially when there are forces that seem to be working against you?

I'll give you some tips that may help you up that ladder of success. These principles are tried and true strategies that you can accomplish yourself, and that may help to open up the ladder above you.

• First and foremost, be good at what you do. Work results stand for themselves and quality will reap success faster than volume will. It's never enough just to get the job done. Get it done right and make things easier for those who follow up on you. Shoddy work will hold you out of the game.

• Make it known to your bosses that you consider making them successful as part of your job description. If your boss wants some improvement in income and status, then it's in his or her best interest to serve you. Leaders of employees are motivated by success just like everyone else. Show your bosses how you can make life better for them.

Are recruiters using Technorati or other blog search tools to find talent? So says the Wall Street Journal in today's paper, pointing out how blogging used to be a screening tool (maybe you shouldn't have gone on that rant about your ex-girlfriend...) but has become, for many more mature members of the job pool, a gold mine. That "about me" page does have some use after all, and many blogs I've visited have a standard resume format where the ironic sideways self-portrait, list of favorite songs and stats on children and puppies usually go.

Who would hire from a blog, and what kind of people, exactly, might they hire? The WSJ uses Ryan Loken, a recruiter at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT), as an example; he says he's hired about 125 people because of their blogs, but doesn't say in which departments.

You might expect graphic designers and web developers to be frequently hired because of their blogs and fun little "side" projects -- and they are, it's true, but don't decide to stick to anonymity on your blog just because you're not in a high-tech field. I'm in (variously) product development, parenting and financial writing, and photography, and all my interests have inspired the occasional recruiter contact to my personal blog address (but, for the record, I'm sticking with this job!). The companies they represented were ones you'd never think of: packaged goods, wireless phones, organic farms. I've found great candidates for contract writing positions in everything from scrapbooking to cooking to living a simpler life through the blogosphere, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Blogging is an invaluable way to showcase one's expertise in any area, from keeping chickens to CSS design to technical stock analysis, and it's becoming, more and more, the leading way to see and be seen. Networking clubs and who-you-know? Passé. It's about how well you SEO. And I could write a whole separate post on that...

With baby boomers getting older and Generation X being a slower population growth demographic, expect tight labor markets for a long time.

Friday's unemployment report demonstrates this trend -- the U.S. economy, once again, created less jobs and the unemployment rate continued to drop. One would expect as job creation slowed, unemployment would pick up, that is not the case anymore. The U.S. created a paltry 97,000 for February. Monthly job creation is averaging 122,000 so far in 2007, down from 190,000 last year. However, despite this weak showing, the unemployment rate actually dropped, from 4.6% to 4.5%. This means less people are coming into the job market.

This is going to be a big dilemma for Fed policy makers. NAIRU and the Phillips Curve, the two big labor inflation theories, will be put to the test. If you have open markets, and China and India each possess populations over 1 billion, who cares about these labor inflation theories.

In much of the late 1990s, monthly job creation exceeded 200,000 for many months in a row. Even with February's paltry job growth,we could see unemployment drop way below 4.0%. I read an economist report years ago which said this population disparity between boomers and Generation X would drive the unemployment to 2.5%. It looks like we might be headed in that direction.

Think before you answer.

What would a $200,000 salary get you in New York, and what in Cleveland? Well, let's strip it down:

• What would be your purchasing power after accounting for the cost of living? New York's cost of living, for example, is double the national average.
• What about effective tax rates? The tax rate in New York is 25.4% for the $200K salary vs. a tax rate of 20.4% in Cleveland for the $100K salary.
• Different inflation rates? May annual inflation rate in New York metropolitan area was 4.8%, in Cleveland, the rate was 3%.

All these should be considered before deciding. So, have you changed your answer?

Let's start by saying that if you have that choice (of making a six figure salary), then congratulations are in order. You are part of the 5% of Americans who do (according to 2004 census reports). But the real question is - where do you live?

CNNMoney.com used data from 6FigureJobs.com and TheLadders.com to figure out the equivalent of $100,000 after adjusting for the cost of living in the top cities that have the largest numbers of six figures jobs listings. In New York, a $100,000 equivalent salary would require a salary of over $205,000, in Boston more than $137,000, about $101,000 in Cleveland and less than $89,000 in Houston.

So while many six figure jobs are indeed offered in higher cost of living areas, there are still many cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland and Denver as well as a few others that also have relatively high numbers of six figures jobs to offer. And as if that isn't enough to convince you, sometimes, just to attract talent, companies in those "lesser" cities would offer the same high salaries as in, say, New York.