Chief financial officers at manufacturing companies seem a little schizophrenic these days.

On the one hand, despite daily signs of an improving economy less than a majority (45 percent) are actually forecasting expansion for their industry in 2011. What's more, this is down sharply from the 59 percent reported last year, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch's recently released 2011 CFO Outlook.

Chief Financial Officers are more optimistic than they were three months ago.

According to the latest survey of CFOs conducted by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, an index measuring CFO optimism for the US economy rose more than 10 points and the outlook for CFOs' own companies' also increased nearly four points.

Sara Lee is the latest company to break itself into two or more separate companies.

The split announcement comes in the same month that Motorola divided into two separate companies.

Timed with the announcement of lower-than-expected fourth quarter profits and some bad news that will affect sales and growth going forward, RadioShack announced that its CFO Jim Gooch will take over the chief executive spot in May, when current CEO Julian Day will retire.

The timing of Day’s departure and Gooch’s promotion seems less than coincidental, given the need for strong financial leadership to get out of the  group's current slump.

Chief execs are as upbeat as the global stock markets.

A new PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of 1,201 chief executives in 69 countries found they are nearly as confident in their outlook for revenue growth over the next 12 months as they were during the recent global boom before the financial crisis.

Employers beware: Your accounting and finance employees are becoming restless.

A growing number are confident about their job security and plan to look for a new job. These are among the findings from the latest quarterly survey commissioned by The Mergis Group, a professional placement division of SFN Group.

So, here is the upside to stubbornly high unemployment and slow job growth.

US labor productivity surged to 2.4 percent in 2009 and 2.8 percent in 2010, according to The Conference Board. This compares with just 0.8 percent in 2008.

Here we go again.

The disappointing number of jobs created in December has renewed calls for incentives to boost hiring by small companies. After all, goes the conventional wisdom, most new jobs are created by the puniest companies in our country, the backbone of the US economy.

Job growth has arrived. A number of companies are hiring again, including both small businesses and the largest corporations.

Trouble is, the data has not yet seeped into the government's reports, which politicians and policymakers eagerly seize and use to support their personal narrative.

The employment picture is expected to brighten in 2011, but in a rather unconvincing manner.

The big question is whether the long-term unemployed lose their patience, or worse, their marketable skills, before they find a job.