Good news, lads: things are finally looking up on the job front.

After taking a beating in the labor market during the financial crisis  — 5.2 million men saw their jobs evaporate between November 2007 and December 2009, compared to only 1.9 million for women — the tide is finally turning.

A new report by Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows that 1.7 million men have returned to the ranks of the employed since  the beginning of last year, with 686,000 men finding work in the last 12 months alone.

“Men were hit disproportionately during the recession,” says John Challenger, chief executive officer.  Indeed, some of the most gripping photos of the financial crisis showed hordes of men (and a handful of women) vacating their Manhattan offices following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 (see photo, left). “Now more of them are heading back to work, and I think in the next year we’ll see that continue.”

Mike Werch, marketing associate for job search site Indeed.com, crunched the numbers and found that male-dominated industries have seen the biggest jump in job postings in recent years.

Take transportation, for instance, which  saw a 147 percent surge in job postings from December 2009 to December 2010, closely followed by manufacturing, which jumped by 90 percent in the same time period.

But the so-called “Man-covery“, as clever news outlets like to dub it, hasn’t been so kind to women. Employment among women has only grown by 365,000 since January 2010, with the number of employed women actually dropping by 85,000 in the last 12 months.

If there’s a silver lining to be had following the financial crisis that shook the global economy in 2008, it’s this: more employers are feeling increasingly responsible for the fate of their employees — and that’s translating to more comprehensive employee benefit plans, a new survey finds.

The downside? Nearly 60 percent of the employers polled say most of their employees fail to take advantage of the resources available to them.

“The disconnect we’re seeing today… is that despite the fact that employers are making financial education and advice programs available to employees, many employees do not engage in these programs because they do not find the information relevant enough to them personally,” says Andy Sieg, head of retirement services for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which commissioned the survey.

Despite the fragile economic recovery and high jobless rate, the labor market is in a so-called “war for talent,” Sieg says. In fact, a recent report from the American Society for Training and Development found that by 2015, 60 percent of all new jobs will require skills held by only 20 percent of the population. Add in the fact that two out of three employees at big companies are looking for the exit sign, Deloitte reports, and there’s legitimate reason for employers to be jittery about losing top talent. As a result, workplaces are ramping up efforts to not only attract younger employees, but to retain older employees for a longer period of time.

Among the efforts underway:

• 50 percent of employers surveyed offer flexible or customized work schedules
• 33 percent are implementing retirement and healthcare education
• 22 percent are giving employees the chance to work remotely
• 21 percent are offering extended benefits to older workers

With Social Security worries plaguing Americans, employers are beginning to recognize the need for a workplace benefits program that goes beyond the standard auto-enrollment plan.

You’ve heard of eating local and shopping local –  now a new book urges you to take the same approach to your portfolio.  Locavesting: The revolution in local investing and how to profit from it guides readers through the idea that investing in local businesses, instead of faceless conglomerates, can not only benefit your local economy, it can boost your bottom line, too.

The book, by freelance journalist Amy Cortese, evolved out of a story she wrote on local stock exchanges in the wake of the financial meltdown.

“People were coming up with new ways to funnel more investment capital to the locally owned companies that create jobs and healthy communities and are too often ignored by the financial establishment,” she says. Locavesting is about restoring the bonds between investors and companies. “It’s capitalism for Main Street.”

Cortese gives Reuters an inside look at the world of locavesting and how you can get started.

The book really exposes the cracks in today’s financial system — how does it highlight the need for “locavesting”?

I think what the financial crisis did was strip bare the inner workings of Wall Street and expose just how greedy and self-interested it had become. And there was a stark contrast between what was happening on Main Street — where people were out of jobs, homes were being foreclosed, small businesses couldn’t get funding — and here you had the big bailout, and shortly afterwards, Wall Street came roaring back. It really exposed, for a lot of people, the dichotomy of Main Street versus Wall Street. And a lot of people, myself included, were looking for alternatives. The fact was, Wall Street was not taking care of Main Street — and neither was government, really. So if something was going to happen, people had to take it upon themselves.

Early in the book you pose the question, “What would the world look like if we invested 50 percent of our assets within 50 miles of where we live?”  Any ideas?

In a world in which virtually everything can be done electronically, keeping track of your financial records just got a lot easier — or more complicated, depending on your level of tech-savviness and your definition of convenience.

As more banks and brokerages shift to e-statements instead of traditional paper copies, keeping tabs on financial records falls into the hands of you, the customer. The good news: A lot less paperwork to file away. The bad news: Someone has to chase down account balances, transaction receipts and monthly statements on various websites and then decide how to store them. And that someone is you.

And you better get used to it because the move to e-banking shows no sign of letting up. In fact, a new survey from Charles Schwab shows that 70 percent of Americans would be interested in using a mobile phone for banking and investing. Some 69 percent of those between ages 18 and 44 said they would be interested in mobile deposits, a feature Schwab is rolling out this week.

So what’s the best way to handle your records now that everything’s gone virtual? For some lucky consumers, the work is already done for them.

Gary Schatsky, president of ObjectiveAdvice.com, provides his clients with quarterly reports in PDF format. Most clients prefer it to a snail-mailed version, he says. The reports compile information on everything from their 401(k) plans to their savings accounts, which helps to “pull it all together” for clients. (Schatsky doesn’t charge clients who prefer to get their statements via regular mail, but some firms do: Vanguard, for instance, charges an annual fee per fund for those who don’t sign up for the e-service package.)

Of course, those without the benefit of a monthly overview are left to their own devices –  but it needn’t be onerous.

“Electronic organization, if done right, is ideal,” says Patrick Bonnaure, founder and CEO of bookkeeping services firm ProLedge.

Nothing riles Americans quite like taxes: who pays what, whether the government needs to raise them or might slash them, and how much they’re eating away at our paychecks.

And when it comes to tax avoidance — the legal means of minimizing one’s tax burden, not to be confused with its illegal cousin, tax evasion — a growing chorus of critics say high tax rates are to blame, and an overly complex tax code isn’t helping. The emerging point of view: The higher tax rates get, the more people will try to figure out ways to stop paying them.

As evidence of that, analysts point to the relatively steady chunk of gross domestic product that can be attributed to tax revenues, even as nominal rates rise and fall. From 1950 until 2010, all federal taxes hovered between 15 percent and 20 percent of GDP, though top income tax rates varied wildly (from 28 percent to 91 percent) during that period. And that suggests a greater reliance on loopholes when rates are higher, experts say.

“When tax rates are that high, nobody is going to pay,” says Alan Dlugash, an accountant at Marks Paneth & Shron LLP in New York. “You’re going to find a way to get out of it,” he says. In fact, he says his high-end clients in New York are holding onto stocks and avoiding selling their business for fear of being bulldozed by a giant capital gains tax bill.

Big business appears to be following suit. The New York Times reported in May that loopholes in the tax code have meant U.S. multinationals are paying far less than the corporate tax rate (one of the highest in the world), leading one expert to conclude that U.S. businesses were “world leaders in tax avoidance.”

The Internal Revenue Service doesn’t have specific figures on the revenue lost each year to tax avoidance, but nearly a decade ago it reported a tax-gap of $345 billion, the vast majority of which was lost to under-reporting. That figure hasn’t been updated since 2001, though the IRS says plans are underway to release more current stats.

Tax critics, meanwhile, are busily trying to prove the harmful effects of high tax rates. For example, raising $1 trillion in tax revenue costs the economy and taxpayers an additional $110 to $150 billion, according to a 2009 report by Robert Carroll, a fellow at the conservative-leaning Tax Foundation. And a 2008 IMF paper argues that lowering the tax rate would effectively increase tax compliance and raise revenues.

If there’s a silver lining to the recent plunge in commodities prices, it’s the reminder — albeit harsh — that what goes up eventually comes down.

Silver and oil prices have already begun to recover from last week’s startling rout that shaved 30 percent off of silver prices in one week. Oil, meanwhile, dipped more than 10 percent in a single day.

Before the selloff, silver was the best-performing commodity, nearing all-time highs of $50-per ounce and rising more than 28 percent for the year ending in April 2011. Oil prices, which can make or break global economic growth, were also on an upswing.

What’s the outlook for silver, oil and other commodities — and what does the volatility mean for your portfolio? Here are answers to some common questions.

What caused silver and oil prices to tank?

It depends on whom you ask. Virtually no one can point to a single cause for the dramatic oil correction; instead, it was likely a combination of factors that culminated in one big market panic.

“We had some soft economic data that had been accumulating over the past couple days, which kind of spooked the market,” says Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. As fears snowballed, investors fled. “Once that elephant gets out of the room, it takes everything else out with it.”

Who’s treating mom the best this year? If a history of splashing out on gifts is any indication, then Oregonians are the best bet: They spent an average of $137 on Mother’s Day gifts in 2010, more than any other residents in the U.S., and far beating out their thriftier counterparts in Alabama, who spent only $56.

The findings, by online marketplace Ebates.com, suggest Americans are finally shaking off the effects of the recession and gearing up to treat mom well this year.

“We saw a big jump in spending as people really felt the impact of recovery,” says Kevin Johnson, CEO of Ebates.com.

And what’s a hundred bucks when you consider the value of mommy dearest? Consider it an investment: mom is probably your financial role model, Citibank reported. All of the unpaid work that mothers do adds up to $61,436, according to a new survey by Insure.com.

Whatever the reason, Americans are paying up: The average spending per person last year was $127, up from $99 in 2009. Those living in high-cost states like New York and California spent the most ($90-$140), while those in lower cost states spent between $60 to $75. Interestingly, those living in North Dakota spent the second most, possibly owing to the high life expectancy rate. “If you’ve got more grandmothers around, then add that to the purchase amount,” says Johnson.

But that doesn’t mean everyone’s dropping cash on expensive gifts this year. Johnson suspects consumers are getting more and more deal-savvy, and that’s enabling them to get more for less.  Amanda Tripp, a mother of three who lives outside Portland, Oregon, says she spent only $10 to make her mother a homemade photo album on shutterfly.com and another $15 for flowers for her mother-in-law from Ebates.com.

“I’ve always been a big online shopper — you can’t go wrong,” Tripp says, adding that she’s getting a $40 bouquet for that $15.  “People are really trying to get more value these days, and coupons are getting popular too.” Other online discount hotspots include RetailMeNot, Groupon, Dealcatcher, and LivingSocial, to name a few.

What does the threat of a zombie attack and a financial meltdown have in common? For starters, you have to act fast, remain calm and fight back. That’s the premise of the off-beat new book, “Zombie Economics: How To Slay Your Bills, Decapitate Debt, and Fight the Apocalypse of Financial Doom,” a tongue-in-cheek guide to financial survival for the type of people who like a good chuckle when they’re slogging through a crisis.

As the title suggests, Zombie Economics takes a “survival-at-all-costs” mantra to fresh heights, introducing each chapter with a breathless scene straight out of a horror flick,  except the bad guy isn’t going to eat your brains — the real enemy is bankruptcy, financial predators and debt.

To put it plainly, the zombie economy is any situation that’s “attacking you,” explains 39-year-old Lisa Desjardins, who co-authored the book  with Rick Emerson. “It could be everything from the global economic meltdown to a personal crisis, and it makes you vulnerable, it makes you feel defenseless and you don’t know how to combat it.”

Desjardins, a correspondent for CNN, talked to Reuters about her own brush with the zombie economy, and how to avoid your own personal financial apocalypse.

You warn right up front that this books isn’t your typical personal finance guide — it’s not about getting rich or winning in the stock market. Tell me what you were aiming for.

This is a book for people who would never buy a Barron’s guide — a dusty, intimidating personal finance book. Those are great, but we wanted a book for people who like cable television: they aren’t going to be putting together an Excel spreadsheet to figure things out, but they have serious financial problems that they don’t know how to deal with.

Why the zombie theme?

Good news, college grads: the entry-level job market is the best it has been in three years — but you may have to settle for less money and a position outside your preferred career path, a new report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas shows.

“There’s lots of positive news out there, and we’re finally seeing some significant job creation,” says John Challenger, chief executive officer. But before you start daydreaming about the corner office, he adds one caveat: The job market isn’t what it used to be, and it may not provide the “ideal job situation” for everyone.

The Challenger report highlights a trifecta of good news: Twenty- to 24-year-olds saw a 2.4 percent jump in employment during the first three months of 2011, more than any other age group, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey of 170 employers by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that they plan to increase hiring of new grads by 21 percent, and a survey of employers found that hiring graduates with bachelor’s degrees will increase about 10 percent, according to the Collegiate Employment Research Institute at Michigan State University.

“There’s still a long way to go, but I think it’s going to be a much better year for graduates than it was two years ago,” says Challenger.

The plight of the college grad isn’t anything new. Recent surveys show that soaring student loan debt and one of the worst job markets in decades have served a double-whammy for struggling young adults: nearly 40 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are jobless or out of the workforce, according to Pew Research Center, forcing thousands of them back to their parents’ home.

But new grads have two advantages that their older peers don’t, Challenger says: For starters, the next generation of workers are a “blank slate,” allowing potential employers to influence their skills and work habits. Secondly, they’re flexible.

“I think a lot of companies are looking for people who can go where the work is and give up some of their work-life balance to find a role they want,” says Challenger. “Companies need flexibility in their workplace.”

So you think you want to be a landlord, do you? Your second home is in the perfect vacation spot and the extra income will add a nice boost to your bottom line.

But before you skip off to place a classified ad, be warned:  Renting out your property can become complicated, particularly for those in the wrong mindset, experts warn.

“So many people fail to truly treat it like a business, and that makes a big difference between a successful experience and one that isn’t,” says Tom Bissmeyer, founder of iTrip.net.

Still interested? Here are some tips for renting out property like a pro:

Know the law: One of the first things to address is whether you’re permitted to rent out your property in the first place — no easy feat, says Christine Karpinski, author and rental property expert. “It all depends on your home, your area and your local government. You might have to do some digging,” she says.

A good place to start is look at your homeowners’ association’s CC&Rs (covenants, conditions and restrictions), documents that dictate how the homeowners’ association operates and what rules the owners must obey. Your local sales tax office may be able to provide some direction, too.