The state of California, Employment Development Department, EDD, has provided www.OC180NEWS.com with a special analysis of employment data for January. In this analysis, Orange County is the second best in the state for jobs. Los Angeles is the worst. Also included below in this article is advice from CareerCast.com on 10 tough interview questions and how to answer them.

Perhaps the most important item related to jobs—the one statistic every economist has been waiting for—is an increase in the total number of people working. Whether or not more people were working in January verses December, depends on which data is considered. The data can be seasonally adjusted, or not, and the numbers can come from either one of two different surveys.

According to EDD, using seasonally adjusted numbers, and what is referred to as the “payroll survey”, there were 32,000 more Californians working in January than in December. Using the other survey source, referred to as the “household survey”, there were 18,000 less Californians working in January than December. But, if household survey data is not seasonally adjusted, the state actually lost 106,800 jobs from December 2009 to January 2010.

Data from the household survey, not seasonally adjusted, is what EDD used to respond to the request by www.OC180NEWS.com. These data show, even though the state in total lost 106,800 jobs, 13 of California’s 58 counties experienced increased employment from December, 2009 to January, 2010. Of these 13, Sacramento experienced the highest employment gain, with an increase of 4,700 employed people.

Orange County was the second fastest job creator, with an increase of 1,900 newly working residents. Placer County held the third ranked spot with a job increase of 1,200, while Yolo was at the number 4 spot with 700 new jobs. The fifth spot went to El Dorado with 600 more employed people.

At the absolute bottom of the list was Los Angeles County, which lost a whopping 61,600 jobs between December 09 and January 2010. Kern was next to the bottom with a loss of 6,600, followed by Alameda at a negative 4,200, Fresno which lost 3,900, and Santa Cruz at negative 2,900.

For those lucky enough to land a job interview, advanced preparation for some pointed questions could help. With so many job hunters on the market right now competing for limited positions, candidates need to be ready to handle tough interview questions with ease, according to a new CareerCast.com report on standing out in the recession.

During a downturn, employers often have numerous experienced and highly qualified candidates applying for just one or two positions. Consequently, candidates need to make a strong sales pitch in interviews as employers and recruiters can be more selective. The trick to fielding hardball interview questions is to realize why they're asked: primarily to gauge how fast you can think and how well you perform under pressure.

“If you rehearse answering tricky career-related questions, you'll be more apt to respond to them confidently,” says Tony Lee, publisher, CareerCast.com. “Practice in front of the mirror, with friends and family, or use a webcam to record you to fine-tune your responses, facial expressions and mannerisms. In fact, one of the typical mistakes made by smart people is to think they can just “wing it” because they’re smart. But the truth is, nothing beats preparation.”

CareerCast.com describes 10 tough interview questions and offers strategies on how to answer them in a way that makes you stand out.

Click here to go to their site where you will find their 10 questions, plus lots of other helpful job search information.