There's hope.

After months of lackluster labor reports, Kelly Services released a report Monday hearkening upbeat news on the labor front.
"The outlook for college graduates shows demand for healthcare, IT and engineering degrees since those sectors have continuing growth," the report said.

The company, which specializes in placing workers in administrative and other jobs, found that there is still a shortage of qualified engineers, which bodes well for degreed job seekers.

Not surprisingly, the healthcare and information technology sectors "continue to drive jobs," the report said.

At the same time, nationwide cutbacks in the "local government" sector continue to send workers to the unemployment line. Minnesota appears to be bucking that trend.

According to the jobs report Minnesota released Thursday, government layoffs stalled for the month of February as local governments in Minnesota added 2,500 jobs for the month. Still government jobs were down 5,500 year over year in Minnesota.

In Its recent Global Workforce Survey, Kelly Services found that online job boards have become the primary way job seekers search for work. It also found that self employment is growing in popularity because it helps job seekers gain "greater control" over their career path and may improve work-life balance.

Labor market economists said that many people turned to creating income on their own, because they could not find outside employment after months of searching.