The news is constantly on the downside and it’s getting harder and harder for people to feel optimistic, but we have to or what else is there? Despair doesn’t pay either and one thing is certain – we will all get through this economy and will move into a positive cycle again.

But, what do we do until that “then” arrives?

CNN Money recently reported that a record 1.21 million people want to go to work, but said they aren’t looking because of the weak labor market. The June figure is up from 793,000 a year ago.

They want to find work – but the opportunities are so slim – they just don’t look.

This doesn’t mean that the unemployment numbers are going down, just fewer people are looking for work.

More people may have stopped looking for work because their jobless benefits are expiring, wrote Deutsche Bank economists Joseph LaVorgna and Carl Riccadonna in a note. To collect unemployment benefits, people must be actively seeking work.

This is not good.

There are five workers for every available opening.

Those who have been out of work for a long time will find it more difficult to land a new job, particularly if they are in sectors that will likely remain depressed, such as manufacturing and construction. They don’t have the skills to switch industries.

The labor force, in general, has shrunk over the past two months, contracting by 974,000 people as they lost confidence in their employment prospects. That reverses part of the gain of 1.7 million workers in the first four months of 2010, when a wave of optimism flowed through the nation.