Hot Topics: Is the Midlife Job Market Bouncing Back?

Last week's announcement that the unemployment rate dipped to 8.5 percent was welcome news, but this may be even better: Bloomberg News reports that companies are hiring increasing numbers of new workers as executives rush to prepare for greater demand as the economy recovers.

The employers adding staff in droves range from Boeing, which is hiring 100 new union machinists each week in anticipation of boosting its output of aircraft by 60 percent over the next two years, to yogurt maker Chobani, which is hiring 300 workers to staff a new plant in Idaho, according to Bloomberg's Thomas Black.

Black notes that the spree may signal an end to the hiring freeze that has lingered even after the official end of the recession in June 2009, and that economists estimate that more jobs will be created in 2012 than at any time since 2006. Economist Martin Holdrich of Woods & Poole, a Washington-based consulting firm, predicts that the manufacturing work force -- which was devastated during the recession -- will rebound by 2 million jobs to a total of 14 million, about the level that it was in 2006.

More Job Prospects: MSNBC reports that more than half of U.S. employers are having trouble finding enough qualified workers to fill positions, according to a study by Manpower, the nationwide staffing firm. But the question remains as to how much the surge will benefit 40- to 55-year-old workers who lost their jobs -- or found themselves underemployed, or stymied in career advancement -- due to the struggling economy over the past several years. A December 2011 study by Rutgers University's John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development estimates that of the as many as 10 million workers downsized since 2008, 28 percent were between the ages of 45 and 59. By the end of 2011, only 22 percent told researchers they had recovered -- that is, that they had found new, well-paying jobs and regained their previous standard of living.

12 Things You Should Never Do When Applying For A Job: "Whatever you do, don't be cute," says recruiter and author Peter S. Herzog. Read the rest of his tips for job seekers at Business Insider.

In other news this week:

Need Advice on Living Well? Listen to this venerable sage. The New York Times reports on a useful new book, gerontologist Karl Pillemer's 30 Lessons for Living. The book offers practical advice from more than 1,000 older Americans, who come from a range of economic and social strata and were interviewed as part of Cornell University's Legacy Project. Perhaps the most useful recommendation: Don't waste time worrying about getting old. "Each decade, each age, has opportunities that weren't actually there in the previous time," as one survey participant explains.

Can Yoga Wreck Your Body? Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter William J. Broad, until now probably best known for his coverage of the space shuttle Challenger disaster and the threat of biological terrorism, may well arouse even more controversy with his New York Times Magazine expose on the health risks of doing yoga. The article -- which documents crippling spinal injuries suffered by overzealous yogis -- immediately triggered a hailstorm of impassioned denunciations from devotees of the Indian art renowned as a path to peaceful enlightenment. "I am appalled by the lack of research and comparative studies as well as the sensationalism and the misleading photos," writes one Vermont practitioner. "Having taught yoga in the Svaroopa style for 11 years, with hundreds and hundreds of hours of training ..., I cannot support nor condone this absurd article lumping all yoga as dangerous," writes another enthusiast from Seattle. A somewhat calmer Yogi in Minneapolis offers this in-depth, nuanced critique of what he thinks Broad got wrong.

Happy Birthday, Ziggy Stardust: If you were a teenager four decades ago and suddenly felt the overpowering urge to dye your hair orange, wear androgynous sparkly bodysuits and yearn for the coming of a space alien messiah, then you probably had David Bowie to thank for it. The British rock superstar, who helped launch the Glam scene of the early to mid-1970s and pioneered the bizarre costumes and campy theatrics that Lady Gaga now champions, turned 65 on January 8. Over the years, the former David Robert Jones has tried on more different images than the liquid-metal android in Terminator 2, flitting from art rock to disco to quasi-punk minimalism, and has acted in 30 films and TV series, from The Last Temptation of Christ, The Hunger and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. He also did the voice of Lord Royal Highness in SpongeBob SquarePants. (See bonus Bowie video below.)

Advantages of the Middle-Aged Brain: This Time article offers a rebuttal to a headline-grabbing, alarming recent study from the British Medical Journal, which concluded that cognitive performance begins to slip after age 45. Writer Patricia Cohen reports other neuroscientists' findings that people in their forties, fifties and sixties actually are more resilient, in control and happier than younger counterparts, in part because the aging amygdala, the brain's emotional center, shows increased ability to screen out or tamp down negative emotions. Additionally, contrary to popular belief that the brain loses cells as it ages, she reports that University of Toronto researchers have found that white matter -- the bundles of nerve transmitters that are insulated in a fatty molecule called myelin -- continues to grow during middle age, providing what scientists call brain reserve.

Website of the Week: Plan B Nation, a smart blog by writer and lawyer Amy Gutman on "Iiving creatively in challenging times."

Last Word: "Everyone who's taken a shower has an idea. It's the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference." -- Atari founder and video-game visionary Nolan Bushnell, via 12most.com

Bonus: Here's a rarity that even devoted David Bowie fans may have missed -- the original 1969 video of Bowie performing his first big hit, Space Oddity. It's a different, less lavishly orchestrated version than the one later released as a single, and Bowie hasn't yet adopted the Dayglo coiffure that we came to so admire.