While we experienced heightened levels of uncertainty and volatility throughout 2008, one clear trend has unfortunately been the continued weakening of the U.S. job market. This month’s jobs report indicated a significant increase to unemployment (closing out the year at 7.2%) and job losses (524,000 in December), totaling a sizable 2.6 million cuts to payroll for the year.

Right before the close of the year, most companies and their executives focused on finalizing plans and budgets to set them up for stability and success in the New Year. Given the current economic situation, reducing costs and increasing efficiencies has become an even bigger part of that process. The steady increase in job losses seen in November and December is reflective of companies trying to start 2009 running as lean of a business as possible to ensure they can withstand the economic pressures.

The reality is, while employers are certainly acting more cautiously and conservatively when it comes to their workforce, we cannot paint the labor picture using only one color. Sectors like manufacturing, construction and financial services continue to be amongst the hardest hit, but if you’ve got a college degree, you’re still looking at a much brighter picture. Nearly 97% of college-educated workers are employed and sectors like healthcare, education, government and IT continue to add thousands of jobs each, month which was certainly reflected in this month’s jobs report.