The economy is slowly - but steadily - rebounding, and this seems to be driving more activity of all types in the online recruiting space. So do tell - what is happening?:

• Dice starts a buy-back: Dice Holdings, Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program that permits the purchase of up to $50 million of its common stock. The new authorization is effective upon the completion of the existing $50 million repurchase program and will be in effect for one year. Why? Only Dice knows.

• Half of All Job Seekers Consult Glassdoor Reviews:  4,633 job seekers were polled to see how Glassdoor has affected their decision to apply for, and accept jobs. Approximately half of all respondents had used Glassdoor at some point in their job search, and most consulted reviews to find top employers before they even thought about applying at a company. Wow.

• LinkedIn tells plaintiffs to go away: LinkedIn users who are suing the company for “hacking” into their email actually gave the service their permission to access their email contacts and send them invitations, the company argues in papers filed with a federal judge. We shall see. In other news, LI has launched a volunteer marketplace.

• SimplyHired claims to reduce cost of hire: Simply Hired released the results of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting entitled the Total Economic Impact of Simply Hired. In that study, which is available here, Forrester concludes that Simply Hired's performance-based recruitment advertising platform outperforms alternatives to deliver new hires at a significantly lower Cost per Hire (CPH). I'm shocked! Amazed! In other news, Yahoo! and Intel veteran Connie Lee Schiefer as its new SVP of Product Management.

• CareerBoard.com adds mobile apps, recommendations, alerts: CareerBoard's new site provides more applicants to existing customers with job posting and distribution products that maximize visibility and reach. The site has also implemented intelligent technology like Candidate Recommendations, Behavioral Intelligence and Smart Alerts.

• eQuest keeps accumulating data: eQuest says that its collection of job board and social media candidate performance statistics has reached 1.35M, adding additional 50 million data points since its last report. eQuest collects and stores these statistics as part of its Big Data Recruitment Suite. This would be the 'big' in big data.

• Thumbzz finds microjobs for students: Thumbzz.com helps give college students a few extra dollars and workplace experience, by way of what it has dubbed microjobs.  These short-term contract positions are usually focused on getting a startup or project up and running, and usually pay no more than $250. The site, created by a student at Marietta, Georgia’s Southern PolyTechnic State University,  just launched in November.

• Evenbase drops TV ads for Jobsite: Online recruitment business Jobsite Evenbase is getting promising results from its decision to switch TV advertising to digital content backed by PR. Dropping the Max Beesley-fronted TV ads was led by marketing director Sophie Relf, who brought in Kaper on a retainer in November to handle trade PR. Interesting.

That's all for now!