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Less than a quarter of hiring managers plan to add more employees to their company rosters in 2012, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey that polled more than 3,000 human resource and hiring professionals.  23% of survey recipients said that they would add full-time permanent staff, down slightly from 24% who said the same last year.  7% of companies plan to cut staff in 2012, the same percentage as last year.

New marketing data from MediaMind hold an important lesson for financial product and service advertisers: Make a good first impression and don't overdo it.

According to the report, up to 60% of ads from the financial sector are wasted because they're repeats consumers ultimately end up ignoring. If they don't convert after their first exposure, chances are subsequent exposures won't have any effect. "The data shows that consumers can determine within the first exposure if a financial services offer is relevant to them," explains Gal Trifon, President and CEO of MediaMind.

The outlook at small U.S. companies is more positive than it's been in several years. In February, the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) index of small company optimism rose to 94.5 — its highest level since December 2007. The index also isn't terribly far off the average of 100.7 it posted during the previous expansion that began in November 2001.

“The future is looking brighter for a few more small-business owners,” comments William Dunkelberg, NFIB chief economist. Still, he notes, “this is not a reading that characterizes a strongly rebounding economy.”