Nothing like a stock market rally to alleviate concerns about a pension funding crisis.

The funded status for the typical US corporate pension plan climbed 4.4 percentage points to 80.3 percent, the best status since May 31, 2010, according to BNY Mellon Asset Management's monthly report.

It looks like traditional employee benefits are in the cross-hairs of cost conscious finance execs.

According to a new survey of chief financial officers and senior comptrollers conducted by Grant Thornton LLP, 30 percent are planning to reduce health care benefits, 23 percent are planning on reducing bonuses and 18 percent are prepared to reduce stock options/equity based compensation.

More than half of chief financial officers at smaller companies say they plan to hire additional workers in the near future.

According to the latest quarterly survey of CFOs conducted by Financial Executives International (FEI) and Baruch College's Zicklin School of Business, 56.5 percent of CFOs said they plan to hire more people in the next six months. A little more than 28 percent said they have no hiring plans while the rest said it is too soon to determine.

Women board-level mentoring programs are more important than ever as conservative fiscal policies and tough economic conditions can lead boards to take a more traditional approach to candidate selection for board positions. This can mean valuing management styles more often seen as “masculine,” thus potentially causing boards to overlook female candidates for a board position.

Plus, when countries and companies are dealing with bad times and individuals are worried about holding on to their jobs, often it can result in a reversion to more conservative positions beyond simple fiscal measures. Often programs deemed not-core are dropped from both public and private entities, and mentoring programs may be high on the list.

I know I may be going out on a very shaky limb. But, I sense a turn in the jobs picture within the near future.

It will probably be too late for Democratic incumbents as well as challengers awaiting results of the November 2 elections. But, it will be good news for those who most matter-the unemployed.

Bad news for companies with staggered boards.

A recent Delaware Chancery Court ruling has made it easier for outsiders to crack a company's classified board structure. As a result, dissidents will be able to wrest control of a company's Board of Directors sooner than the target might have hoped.

Want to hire new people and save money at the same time? Just participate in the Treasury Department's employee subsidy program.

From February to August 2010, businesses have hired an estimated 8.1 million new workers who had been unemployed for 60 days or longer, making those businesses eligible to receive billions in the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act tax exemptions and credits for hiring long-term unemployed workers.

It's all about the jobs.

Add chief financial officers of retail firms to the long list of experts who believe the economy will continue to muddle along until the unemployment rate comes down.

You have to hand it to the teacher's union. It has managed to replace investment bankers as public enemy number one among the populist set.

The release of the movie Waiting for 'Superman' and NBC's week-long ambition to identify and resolve the education crisis in America have thrust into the spotlight the issue of crumbling urban schools and the Obama Administration's un-Democratic Party-like attempt to reform the ways things have operated for the past 80 years.

Looks like even finance executives in industries with historically lax collection procedures are taking steps to speed up collections.

According to a survey of architecture, engineering and environmental consulting design firms, median collection periods have dropped from 78 days in 2009 to 74 today. That's down from a 10-year high of 82 days in 2008. In companies with 250 to 499 employees, the change was particularly striking, from 69 days in 2009 to 59 days in 2010.