These industries showed December employment gains.

• Amusement and recreation
• Health services
• Private education
• Finance, especially mortgage banking
• State and local government, especially education

The industries below are likely to show 2002 job growth, most directly or indirectly as a result of the September 11 attacks and anthrax threats. However, some, such as health services and education, almost always have job openings, even in bad times.

• Federal, state and local government
• Finance, especially mortgage banking
• Computer networking security
• Security, law enforcement and defense
• Health services and pharmaceutical
• Biotech and germ sanitation
• Education

While there are fewer than a year ago, opportunities still do exist, including high-tech. For example, at this writing, a US map in the "Where the Jobs are" (job-searching) section of USA Today shows many jobs across the country. They are clustered mostly in cities from north to south in the Eastern half of the country, from the Midwest to the East Coast. Many more are clustered along the West Coast, while others are scattered among Alaska, Hawaii and the West-Central section of the country.

According to a recent CBS MarketWatch article (no longer available without registration), the nation's top-ten employers below "are quietly gearing up to start 2002's first wave of hiring." Don't let some of the names fool you, Techies. For example, UPS and Wal-Mart are looking for engineers (or soon will be) in many disciplines, as is IBM. Even McDonald's has openings for several techies in their home office, while Kroger and J.C. Penney's Eckerd drug stores are hiring pharmacists. Click the company links to see career and job info.