You can’t take what is going on in one state and call it a trend for the rest of the country, but this story from The Boston Globe is interesting simply because it hints that a glimmer of an economic recovery  may finally be ahead, especially if you look at what is happening in Massachusetts.

“The Massachusetts economy is on the mend,” the Globe reports, “and the job market is showing signs of stabilizing. Temporary employment, considered a leading indicator for labor markets, has ticked up in each of the past four months. Key sectors of the state economy have posted job gains. Employers, who froze hiring in the darkest days of the recession earlier this year, are beginning to fill positions.”

And then there are these telling quotes that make you sit up and take notice.

“Six months ago, people were hunkered down. Nobody was sticking their head up,” said Dave Sanford, executive vice president at Winter Wyman Cos., a Waltham, Massachusetts-based staffing firm. “Now, they’re beginning to feel it’s OK to come out of the hole.”

“Some of our stronger sectors are showing signs of stabilizing,” said Elliot Winer, a regional economist based in Sudbury, Massachusetts. “The opportunities that are out there right now require education, training, and skills.”

Now, no one in the Globe story is saying that they see an imminent recovery anytime soon—not with Massachusetts posting an unemployment rate of 8.8 percent, a figure that is expected to rise in 2010 given how cautious employers remain.

In fact, Sanford says, “There’s no sense yet that the gates are open, the lights are on, and everybody goes back to work. But employers are cautiously optimistic that the economy is going forward. They’re just waiting for things to get a little brighter.”

Having employers feeling a little optimistic is critical if we’re going to start reversing the terrible economic trends we have been experiencing since this Big, Bad Recession started in December 2007. Massachusetts certainly isn’t a bellwether for the nation, but if you’re like me, you’ll take whatever good news wherever you can find it. And maybe, just maybe, this is the start of a small but growing trend that will help us not only start to see some recovery, but perhaps also allow employers to start thinking about investing in their workforces again.

Get my latest blog updates on human resources and workforce management news by following me on Twitter.