Layoffs. Retirements. Attrition. It seems like that's all you hear about on the job front these days.

But if you talk to Ed Coringrato of CENiX Inc. in Allentown, Pa., he's still looking for optical engineers.

Or, if you're not worried by heights and high voltage, call Chris Wolmack of Southern Co. He's hiring linemen, who generally make $47,000 to $50,000 a year, to keep the electricity flowing in Atlanta.

And Cindy Atwood, owner of the Hotel Pemaquid in Maine, would love to lure someone to clean rooms, after having to tuck in the sheets herself this past weekend.

In fact, it's not all gloom and doom out there. Scores of industries are hiring: mining firms, mortgage bankers, health services, oil companies, insurance providers, and electric utilities, just to name a few.

One indication that jobs are available: The newly unemployed are taking only 2.07 months on average to find another job.

"The unemployment rate would not be at 4.5 percent if that were not happening," says John Challenger of Chicago outplacement firm Challenger Gray & Christmas, which tracks firing and hiring patterns.

The employment picture reflects a diverse economy in which, even as manufacturing has faltered, industries like coal and oil are boosting output, and other industries like housing see sales stimulated by falling interest rates.

This is not to gloss over the rising tide of layoffs. Last week, the government reported that initial and continuing claims for unemployment rose in mid-August. And in two weeks, when the government reports the jobless rate for August, it will probably tick up again.

"We expect it to peak at about 5.3 percent next spring," says economist David Wyss of Standard & Poor's/DRI in New York.

A significant portion of the layoffs are concentrated in two areas: manufacturing and temporary services.

These two categories lost 1.2 million jobs in the past year.

Temp-job activity is expected to be near historic lows for the final quarter of the year, according to a survey released today by Manpower, a Milwaukee-based temp agency. The malaise has spread to services, it says.

"A lot of companies hired temps so they could avoid laying off full-time workers," explains economist Mr. Wyss.

Still, even as manufacturing and temp services have shed jobs, there has been a gain of 2 million new jobs in the US over the past year. This is about the same as last year, but the mix has changed. Companies are hiring more managerial and professional workers.

That's the case at American Electric Power (AEP), a utility based in Columbus, Ohio. David Hagelin, a spokesman, estimates the company will be hiring 400 workers for its unregulated businesses such as trading sulfur-dioxide emissions. "These are jobs that require an economics or finance background - and possibly people with MBAs," he says.

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