More and more college graduates cannot find a job in the field marked on their degree. But student loans won't wait, so many resort to working in the service industry at places like Walmart and Starbucks just to stay financially afloat. How long will this generation of college-education blue collar workers wait for the jobs they want?

What do Sony Pictures, A&W Restaurants, Saab, American Apparel, Sears, Kellogg's Corn Pops, MySpace, Soap Opera Digest, and Nokia have in common? They’re ten brands that 24/7 Wall St, a Delaware-based financial news group, says won’t survive through 2012. And it looks like some of those predictions might already be coming true — on Tuesday, Sears announced it will close more than 100 stores after lackluster holiday sales.

Every holiday season, many Americans feel the compulsion to shop for themselves and their loved ones. George W. Bush famously encouraged the nation to go shopping during his presidency, reminding Americans that 70 percent of the economy is derived from personal spending. This year, the economic engine went into overdrive during Black Friday and Cyber Monday; but, does that indicate signs of a looming economic recovery?

President Obama has been on a tour to push his $447-billion jobs package, and he's been meeting with small business owners in places like North Carolina and Ohio, making it clear that they are at the heart of his plan for economic recovery. Meanwhile, some Congressional Democrats are already saying that the jobs bill will need some major changes in order to pass. Can small businesses really save our ailing economy?

Despite across-the-board indications that the U.S. economy would be seeing enormous job growth this month, employers added just 18,000 jobs. Dan Gross, columnist and economics editor of Yahoo! Finance, discusses the stalled labor market in the face of the lowest job growth in nearly a year.

Last week, New York Times Wall Street and finance reporter Louise Story explained how the Federal Reserve's new economic recovery plan, known as "quantitative easing," works. Story explained that the process is intended to effectively lower already-low interest rates, making it cheaper for banks to borrow money. But how will this impact ordinary, middle-class Americans?

The 9.5 percent unemployment rate does not count a huge number of Americans: People who are out of a job and have given up looking. With millions of people out of work and competing with each other for the small percentage of open jobs, it makes sense that a significant portion will call it quits – at least for the time being – and cease searching for employment all together.

If you're unemployed but not looking for work, tell us: At what point did you stop looking for a job?

The commerce department revised growth figures for 2007 - 2009, taking down the numbers and essentially showing that the economy performed more poorly than was thought. The economy shrank at a rate of 2.6 percent last year; this is the steepest drop since 1956. On Wall Street, stock futures fell in the wake of this report.

Dan Gross, columnist for Newsweek and Slate says that there's a dichotomy. Things associated with business, industry, and global industry are strong, while anything tied to the consumer is weak. Personal consumption is only rising at 1.6 precent rate.

The Senate is scheduled to vote today on whether to begin work on the finance regulatory overhaul bill, which President Obama promoted in New York last week. If Democrats have their way, the Senate will proceed to a debate on the bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Chris Dodd. Otherwise, the bill, S.3217, will stall and require more negotiations.