First of all, there is the simple fact that in February of 2010, as reported by CNNMoney.com, “The number of chief executives who left their posts surged in February to the highest level since September 2008.” This somewhat startling figure is attributed to the changing needs of the economy, in that CEOs who can deal with recession are no longer necessary; instead, CEOs who can capitalize on a growing economy are needed. Furthermore, CEOs in health care and non-profit sectors are in significant trouble, as those sectors have had the highest turnover rates this year, thanks to the uncertainty brought on by the health care reform. John A. Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., says that he expects CEO departures to continue to climb all throughout this year.

This trend is more than a little unsettling for those on the job market right now. After all, if the CEOs at the top of companies aren’t safe from losing their jobs, then it would seem that very few others would be safe. Even if you were to obtain a job, it might not last you very long, especially if you’re in a sector in the midst of an upheaval, like the health care sector. It’s still very unclear exactly how the health care bill is going to reshape the health care private sector, but one can assume that the entire section of businesses will experience more than a little upset over the coming months, and no job in that sector may be safe.

Next is a debate currently going on, regarding the creation of green jobs, as they are called. According to a report by Dr. Gabriel Calzada Alvarez of the Rey Juan Carlos University in Spain, for every green job that is created, 2.2 jobs are lost. Not only is this a frightening statistic for any individual searching for a job, but it is also in general a rather disquieting idea. Natural intuition would lead one to believe that creating more jobs would not have such a directly negative relationship with the number of jobs available in the country, but this report would say otherwise. Beyond this, green jobs are questionable, if only because the “green” element is inherently doubtable. There have been many studies that argue that green jobs and greener alternative forms of energy are either entirely inefficient, or are actually not as green as they may seem. As a result, the quest to create more green jobs seems somewhat problematic at best, and blatantly harmful to the overall job market at worst.

One would think, naturally, that creating more jobs, green or otherwise, could only help the job market. After all, simply creating new projects to accomplish would require people to fill the roles necessary to complete those projects, thereby creating jobs that need to be filled. But this is not the case, as the green job statistic demonstrates.

Next, consider that some corporate executives are receiving what is best described as a “pity” bonus for doing their jobs. These bonuses are discretionary bonuses, given to managers of companies, worth perhaps millions of dollars. According to CnnMoney.com, the top six executives of United Technologies “collected a combined $4.5 million in bonuses last year, even though the company failed to reach its goal of matching its 2008 performance.” The fact that executives are still getting bonuses of such a tremendous magnitude, while the companies still aren’t doing particularly well, and the economy in general isn’t very strong, does not give job seekers much hope in economic turn around.

The bonuses given to executives are in a sense a form of deception, such that one might look at how well the executives of a given corporation are being paid, and then come to the conclusion that it must be doing fine as a company, and therefore seek a job with it, or otherwise aid that corporation. Board members defended the major bonuses by saying that they were deserved because the companies in question did not suffer as much of a performance drop as its rivals. Indeed, instead of the bonuses being rewarded on a basis of excellence at performing their jobs, it seems that these bonuses were given out on the basis of simply doing jobs better than the competition, even if there was still very little actual progress made.

This sort of policy is only acceptable when bonuses can genuinely be withheld from executives when they fail to do their job as best they could, or at least, as well as their rivals in other companies do. If that were the case, then one could perhaps accept the distribution of such high paying bonuses, as it would at least seem that some executives are earning the bonuses. But this is unlikely, says Paul Hodgson, senior research associate at the corporate governance research firm The Corporate Library.

So the economy of today looks like a bizarre mishmash of stories, with some executives being rewarded tremendous amounts of money which could instead be funneled towards paying new employees, and other executives losing their jobs quite easily, simply because the economic climate is shifting. Some new jobs that are being created, to help boost the overall job market out of the gutter, could be decreasing the overall number of jobs inadvertently. It’s a very strange, fluctuating job market right now, and there seem to be moderately few ways of exerting enough control over it to create a stable job for yourself. But there are a few things that you can do to try to give yourself the best possible edge in this bizarre and shifting job market.

To find a job, use every resource available to you. Your local newspapers, national newspapers, recruitment agencies…they’re all tools to help you find a job in these troubled times. Use them to their greatest effect. The Internet is similarly a fantastically powerful job-finding tool, because it offers you one primary advantage: information. According to Scott Boyd of jobseekersadvice.com, “Information is the key to your success!” The Internet is unlikely to directly, all alone, set you up with a job, but if you use the Web’s resources well, you can find ample amounts of information to help you out, be it from tip sites, or guides, to sites that will point you to recruitment agencies and the like. Boyd warns that putting up your resume on a career site will usually not be enough in and of itself to help you find a job, because hundreds of thousands of other resumes will be up right alongside it, all competing for the same job. But nonetheless, it doesn’t hurt, and going to such a site can give you a good start on finding places to which you should send your resume.

For recent graduates from college, Katie Ford of Hoover’s recommends short-term jobs which can offer long-term advantages. As experience plays a very important role in any job-seeker’s chances of obtaining a job, sometimes it’s much more useful to take a short-term job and build up some experience, than it is to only be looking for a full time job which will generally require more experience, anyway. Besides, getting to learn about a particular job type by working within it for a bit, even just as a temp worker, can be very helpful for a young job seeker. It’s as much a learning process as anything else is, and being able to get experience within a job field that you find interesting may be just as valuable as actually getting a full time job.

Temp work can also help put you in touch with people who may help you find a job later down the road. Building up a system of connections and contacts can be crucial to getting a job in some sectors, and it can never hurt to have a number of individuals who are willing to help you out in your job search. These connections can always come back to help you when you least expect it, and for the moment, having someone experienced vouch for you as a good potential employee would boost your chances of finding a job substantially.

Just keep in mind that the keys to finding a job, even in this fluctuating, bizarre climate, are persistence and hope. Never give up on trying to find a job, and always show how interested you are in working for any employer. Try hard enough, often enough, and eventually you will find a job, and with any luck, that can lead to another, better job, and then another, and so on, until finally you are in a job which will fully leave you feeling satisfied.