There’s no doubt about it—the unemployment numbers have been terrible, hitting a 25-year high in March at 8.5 percent nationally. And the worst part of losing a job, especially in this economy, is that the prospect of finding a new position somewhere is really, really tough.

That’s why a survey today from mega job board CareerBuilder is somewhat surprising, because on the surface, it seems to indicate that finding a new position may not quite be the long, drawn-out process that everyone thinks it is.

“Despite it being one of the most challenging hiring environments in the nation’s history,” the CareerBuilder survey says, “41 percent of workers who were laid off from full-time jobs in the last three months reported they found a new full-time, permanent position while another 8 percent found part-time work.”

I see a lot of these workplace surveys that sound too good to be true, and what I generally find is that they sound that way because were taken back in the relatively good days of November and December.

I don’t find them to be terribly useful, given what has happened to the economy since then. The CareerBuilder survey’s top finding does leave some important information unspoken: If 49 percent got some kind of job, that means 51 percent of the people surveyed did not. Not exactly encouraging news.

On the other hand, you have to give credit to CareerBuilder, because this survey “included 807 workers who were laid off from full-time jobs within the last 12 months [and was] conducted between February 20 and March 11, 2009.”

  The rule of thumb in finding a new job is that is takes one month for each $10,000 of salary you are trying to replace. I haven’t seen anyone come up with a rough metric that beats that one. Like most things in the current economy, the higher your salary is, the more time it probably takes now.

The CareerBuilder survey gives a surface indication that it might not be quite as hard to find a job in this economy as some have been led to believe, but as usual, the devil is in the details. For example, here are some of the survey points that add a little more perspective:

• More men than women who were laid off in the last 12 months were able to find full-time employment—59 percent of men compared with 49 percent of women.

• Workers ages 35 to 44 were the most likely to find full-time jobs after a layoff—68 percent of them did. Workers 18 to 24 were the least likely at 41 percent, followed by 46 percent of workers 55 and older.

• Only 32 percent of workers laid off in the past 12 months received a severance package from their employers. Sixty-nine percent reported the severance sustained them for two months or less. One in four said it sustained them for less than a month. Forty-five percent of workers who were laid off in the last year had to tap into long-term savings as a result of losing their jobs.

• Nearly half of workers (49 percent) who were laid off in the last 12 months and landed new positions took a job with less pay; 15 percent were able to negotiate higher compensation. Twenty percent took a job with fewer hours, while 12 percent took on more hours.

In other words, the news in this CareerBuilder survey is mixed at best.

“It’s going to take longer to find a job in today’s market,” said Brent Rasmussen, president of CareerBuilder North America, “but there are opportunities out there in key areas such as health care, government, education, sales and technology.

He went on to add this piece of salient advice: If you are unemployed, “it’s important to devote five hours or more to your job search every day. Check online listings, talk to recruiters, join social networking sites—use all the resources you have available to you.”

I’d also add this: No matter what the CareerBuilder survey says, it will take you a lot longer to find a job than you think if you suddenly find yourself unemployed. As I’ve written before, it’s always great to hope for the best, but you’ll be better off and sleep better at night if you also make sure to prepare for the worst, because if the worst happens, you generally don’t see it coming.

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