RJ and Makay

Factory overtime is on the rise, according to the Labor Department, and that's great news for a lot of Americans who've had to settle for part-time work when they wanted to be full-time. On average, factory workers put in 4.2 hours of overtime in February, the most since July 2007.

“There's only so much overtime you can make your workers work before you have to add [employees],” says John Canally, an economic strategist at LPL Financial. Some of the latest economic data points to further employment gains in manufacturing in coming months, he adds.

The government's report on jobs last Friday was mixed, showing a 0.4% drop in unemployment to 9% but without much jobs growth. Nevertheless, economists are forecasting that declines in the unemployment rate will soon be accelerating in the wake of a rallying stock market, strengthening dollar, and improving economy.

Goldman Sachs economists, for example, have adjusted their unemployment forecast for the end of this year downward from 9% to 8.6%. Unemployment will be 8% in 2012 rather than 8.3%, they also predict.