If you want signs that the economy is beginning to recover, I've been running into them this month.

First sign: I got a contract gig. Suffice it to say, it's been a while. But I am now employed through June with a possible extension through the end of the year.

Second sign: When my short story got published on Leite's Culinaria earlier in the month, I used it as an excuse to contact a number of recruiters and headhunters I've met over the past couple of years. One of them told me he'd made more in the first 45 days of this year than he did in the last 90 days of 2009. Seeing as he makes money from getting people jobs, that's encouraging.

Third sign: Tonight we went out to dinner to celebrate my first week of being employed again. Oddly enough, I recognized the woman sitting at the table next to us. She works at the Unemployment office. I mentioned to her that I'd started working again and she said that a lot of her clients were either getting back to work lately or were getting more interviews and good prospects. If someone who works at the Unemployment office says she's seeing the job market picking up, that's encouraging too.

Obviously, this isn't a scientific study or an official government statistic. It's just three points of anecdotal evidence. But it's three points that are making me feel better about the economy than I have in a long time.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 11:31 pm and is filed under Techno Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.