Wall Street Hiring, Vacation Time, The White House and Chris Rock

Some Friday links before you start your weekend.

From the New York Times via MSNBC, come word that Wall Street is starting to anticipate a recovery--and hiring has started with it. This is not news Main Street wants to hear about Wall Street:

The increase in hiring and cautious optimism stand in sharp contrast to the mood among workers in other fields, where jobs have been slow to return or are disappearing altogether. Since June 2008 the number of jobs has shrunk by nearly 14 percent in manufacturing and by 22 percent in construction, but only by 8.5 percent in the financial industry nationwide.

It is also the opposite of what is going in other highly paid, white-collar professions like law, where employment nationwide in June was the lowest since late 2001, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The financial work force in New York has shrunk by more than 28,000 since its peak in January 2008, but is still slightly above its level in 2003 after the tech bubble burst, meaning it actually weathered this recession — the worst since the Depression — better than the previous one. Nationally, staffing is back to where it was in late 2005, while employment in the overall economy is near 2004 levels.

Next, Monster has some advice about being smart about vacation time. The big advice they give is to be aware of your benefits, prepare before you go, and to have set rules about contact while you're gone.

Next from Yahoo! News comes a list of how much employees get paid in the Obama White House (who have even cut 3.5% of their workforce)

Lastly, from ExecuNet, we have Chris Rock's Guide to Job Search (H/T Wendy)

Enjoy, stay cool and have a great weekend!