I’ve gotten more questions recently from candidates wondering what the job market is like. Some say they’ve seen an increase in activity, others have been out of work for more than a year and are considering expanding their search to areas outside of Silicon Valley. As usual, there’s not a simple straightforward answer.

Let’s start with the good news. Intel, Google and AMD all had good earnings reports this week. And companies like Cisco, HP, and Intel have announced hiring plans. Most third party recruiters I’ve talked to are getting more job orders to work on, which means internal staffing teams need help finding talent. These are all signs of the hiring trend moving up and to the right.

The bad news is that the unemployment rate still remains high and there are a lot of very talented people who are still out of work. I read an article a couple of weeks ago that drilled down into the details behind the unemployment rate provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The unemployment rate includes all types of workers, at all levels with different levels of education and was 9.7% in March 2010. If we just focus on management, professional and related types of workers the unemployment rate in March was 4.7%. And the unemployment rate in March for people with college degrees was 4.9%. This data is for the entire U.S. and I don’t have it broken down for Silicon Valley, but I have to believe the trend is consistent. The unemployment rate for professionals and managers is probably significantly lower than the 12.6% that was just reported in California.

So if you’ve been out of work for a while and are feeling frustrated and hopeless, it’s not as bad as it seems. I will continue to give the same advice. If you’re not working, and haven’t been working for over six months, go out and contract, or volunteer, and update your resume and LinkedIn profile. It will make a difference. And keep your network informed of your activities. I know you may feel like your communications may not be getting results, but there is more activity, more jobs, so your network will be able to help with leads now more than ever!