Because the recession affected many individuals' careers and lifestyles, analysts were looking for a sign of hope that the job market would start to open up in the near future. While 2009 was characterized by a hiring lull for the majority of the year, economic experts reported that they were optimistic for 2010 in terms of employment. Although many felt the road to recovery would be a long one, businesses slowly reported they would start hiring in the near future.

Individuals who are looking for careers may begin to see a lot more job opportunities arising as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that January's unemployment rate dropped 0.3%, clocking in at 9.7%. Both November and December posted an unemployment rate of 10%, which had dropped from October's 10.9%.

During the month of January companies lost 22,000 jobs, which may seem like a lot, but is dwarfed by the 85,000 jobs lost during December.

One of the bigger saviors in the career market was temporary jobs, which rose by 52,000 for the month.

Since the recession began in December 2007, there have been a total of 8.4 million jobs lost, which is the most since World War II, according to USA Today.