It's Labor Day, but I'm not going to give you a hard time if you don't feel like celebrating.

The Department of Labor released its latest employment figures recently, and they aren't good. As of Sept. 4, 2009, the unemployment rate stood at 9.7 percent, its highest level since June 1983.

Kind of puts a damper on the backyard barbecue, doesn't it?

The news isn't all bad, though.

For starters, the DOL reports that the pace of job cuts has slowed considerably — which, I'll agree, is a pretty laughable bit of good news. But hey, beggers can't be choosers.

The news is considerably better if you're working as (or studying to become) a CPA.

First, according to Rick Telberg, the same DOL report shows that “total employment in the nation’s accounting and bookkeeping services sector climbed by a seasonally adjusted 2,300 jobs in August, to stand at a head count of 943,900.”

Next, there's BusinessWeek's annual “Best Places to Launch a Career” survey. The top four companies on the list: Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG. “With rich benefits, extensive training programs, and a combined recruiting effort that makes more than 10,000 hires even in a tough year, the Big Four are hard to beat,” BusinessWeek's Lindsey Gerdes writes.

Combine that with Telberg's report and you find that there's a lot to like about all areas of the profession.

Maybe you should fire up the grill and crack open a cold one after all …