The dismal jobs front got a bit more good news, following the release of a report showing the nation's employers last year cut the fewest number of workers in more than a decade. Further, the findings showed 2010 ended on a high note, with December recording the lowest number of monthly cuts since 2000.

The slowdown in cuts follows an uptick in activity in 2009 when downsizing reached a seven-year high, according to the 2010 year-end job-cut report, released Wednesday by job-services firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Last year, employers announced plans to eliminate 529,973 positions, the lowest number since 1997.

CEO turnover is starting to stabilize, suggesting that recession-impacted companies have been through the worst of the corner-office shuffling. The number of top dogs leaving their posts by November 2009 fell almost 18% compared to the same 11 months last year, according to a report supplied to BloggingStocks by outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Only 94 CEOs left their posts last month, a slight up-tick from October's 89, but 10% lower than the 104 recorded in November 2008.

Through the end of November, 1,122 CEOs have moved on, a decline of 17.6% year-over-year. Last year, 1,361 departures were seen by this point. If the trend continues, CEO turnover could reach its lowest level since 2004, when only 663 occurred.

The health care industry experienced the most changes, with 22 CEOs leaving their posts, bringing the total to 181 for the sector this year, topping all industries. The government and non-profit sector comes next with 148 this year, 18 in November. The financial services industry lost 116 CEOs, with only 10 happening last month.

Retail hiring for the holiday shopping season was expected to be slow, and now we have the data to confirm it. According to data from Bureau of Labor Statistics (supplied to BloggingStocks by Challenger, Gray & Christmas), the retail sector added only 63,500 jobs in October -- in data that appropriately was not seasonally adjusted.

This is only slightly better than the 59,100 retail jobs added in October 2008. In the fourth quarter of last year, retail employment increased by a mere 384,300 jobs, with the retail industry turning in its worst holiday shopping season employment stats since 1989 (when it added 380,500 workers).

Layoff announcements hit their lowest level since March 2008 last month, signaling market stabilization. Global outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. put the number of cuts at 66,404 for September, a 13% decline from July's 76,456. Year-over-year, the number of layoffs announced is down 30%, and September was the fourth month in a row in which job cuts fell relative to the same month a year earlier.

Planned job cuts reached 240,233 for the third quarter of 2009, according to Challenger, its lowest level since the first quarter of 2008, when there were 200,656 planned layoffs. For the third quarter of this year, job cuts fell 24.5% from the previous quarter's 318,165, and it's off 16.3% from 287,142 in the third quarter of 2009. At the beginning of 2009, the planned layoff rate reached a seven-year high of 578,510. Since then, the planned layoff rate fell 58.5%.

According to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, job losses slowed during May for the the fourth straight month. The report showed that job cuts totaled 111,182 during May, 16% better than the 132,590 jobs cut in April. May's total was the lowest since last September, but was still 7.4% higher than a year ago.

The greatest amount of layoffs came from the government/non-profit sector for the third-straight month. The second largest amount of cuts came from the computer sector, followed by the chemical and automotive industries.

Here's a look at what's on the economic calendar for the week of January 5, 2009:

• Construction spending (Nov. 2008): Monday, 10:00 AM
• Ford Motor Co. U.S. sales (Dec. 2008): Monday, 1:00 PM
• New motor vehicle sales (Dec. 2008): Monday, 4:00 PM
• Factory orders (Nov. 2008): Tuesday, 10:00 AM
• Pending home sales (Nov. 2008): Tuesday, 10:00 AM
• ISM Non-Manufacturing Survey (Dec. 2008): Tuesday, 10:00 AM
• Monster Employment Index (Dec. 2008): Wednesday, 6:00 AM
• Challenger job-cut announcement (Dec. 2008): Wednesday, 7:30 AM
• Public debt (Dec. 2008): Wednesday, 3:00 PM
• Consumer credit (Nov. 2008): Thursday, 3:00 PM
• Employment situation (Dec. 2008): Friday, 8:30 AM
• Wholesale trade (Nov. 2008): Friday, 10:00 AM

For expectations from some of this week's earnings releases, see The week in preview: Family Dollar, Bed Bath & Beyond, KB Home, and others.