Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office

The tough job market has been so hard on some Americans that they have dropped out of the running altogether.

But here’s a surprising twist: Generally, that’s not been true of older Americans.

The labor force participation rate, or the number of Americans who are working or looking for work, has declined in recent years for every age group except those who are 55 and older, according to a report released this week by the Government Accountability Office.

Older Americans generally have a lower labor force participation rate than other age groups, and for good reason: That’s the point in life when most people retire.

But the percentage of older Americans who are choosing to remain in the labor force, or to get back in it, has steadily been rising over the past 20 years and even continued to increase over the course of the recession and recovery.

About 40 percent of workers age 55 and over were working or looking for work in 2011, the GAO analysis found, compared to about 30 percent in 1990.

That’s in contrast to young and prime-age Americans, who have seen declines in labor force participate rates in recent years.

A closer look at the data shows that the real increases are coming from some of the oldest workers. Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley University, noted that labor force participation among 55- to 64-year-olds has generally been flat in the last five years, at about 64 to 65 percent.

But for workers 65 and over, labor force participation has increased from 15.5 percent in 2007 to 18.4 percent now. Levine’s analysis was based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

There are a number of potential reasons why the labor force participation rate has increased for people who we traditionally think of as being in retirement age.

One explanation may be that older workers are choosing to work longer to make up for investment losses and other financial woes as a result of the recession. Some people age 65 and older also may be getting back into the labor force because they can’t make ends meet on Social Security and retirement savings.

The GAO report said other factors keeping older workers at work may include better health and life expectancies, the increasing number of older women in the labor force and the need to stay at work to retain health benefits.

That a larger chunk of older people are working doesn’t diminish how tough the recession has been on people aged 55 and over, Levine notes.

Although the unemployment rate for older workers has generally been lower than the broader population, a job loss in that age range can be particularly devastating. That’s because it generally takes older workers longer to find a new job, and that long gap in employment just before retirement age can have a harsh impact on their retirement plans.

The GAO report to the Senate’s Special Committee on Aging focused mainly on the effect of long-term unemployment on older workers.

In testimony before the committee last week, the National Employment Law Project noted that many older workers face the double-whammy of a big employment gap and a resume that gives away their age. Both can be a turnoff to some potential employers.

Levine, who has done extensive research into older workers and the recession, said many people in that age range are “limping across the finish line.”

“They find some way to make ends meet from whenever they lose their job at 58 or whatever, and finally when they get to 62, Social Security provides them with a lifeline,” he said. “It provides a means of getting by.”

Related:

Americans expect to work longer, retire later

Long-term unemployed losing benefits as job picture improves

Out of work, out of options, into retirement 

Facebook shares are expected to begin trading Friday at 11 a.m. ET on the Nasdaq stock exchange, giving the general public a chance to buy shares of the social network company for the first time.

Of course those shares will come at a price. Facebook priced its initial public offering at $38 a share Thursday, a price granted mainly to wealthy investors and well-connected fund managers. The price values the eight-year-old company at more than $100 billion and easily could go higher when trading begins.

Should you buy a few shares for your portfolio? CNBC’s “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer (above) says no.

(You can check the current stock price by clicking here.)

Where you live may be hampering your economic potential.

If you live in New York, New Jersey or Maryland, chances are your prospects for moving up the ladder of financial success are better than if your home is in Oklahoma, Louisiana or South Carolina.

A study by the Pew Charitable Trust called “Economic Mobility of the States” paints a gloomy picture for many southern states when it comes to whether residents there are likely to have better economic mobility. But many states in the Northeast seem to fare better when it comes to things like average earnings growth.

“When it comes to achieving the American Dream, it matters where you live,” said Erin Currier, project manager of Pew’s Economic Mobility Project, released Wednesday.

The report looked at average earnings for workers ages 35 and 39, and measured those earning from 1978 through 1997. Researchers then looked at how those rose and fell a decade later when the same individuals were 45 and 49.

To measure economic mobility, the researchers looked at absolute mobility – average earnings growth over time – and upward and downward relative mobility – measuring people’s rank on the ladder relative to their peers. 

Here’s a breakdown on the economic mobility winners and losers:

• Eight states, primarily in the Mideast and New England regions, have consistently higher upward and lower downward mobility compared to the nation as a whole: Maryland, New Jersey, and New York have better economic mobility than the national average on all three measures investigated; Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Utah have better mobility than the national average on two measures.
• Nine states, all in the South, have consistently lower upward and higher downward mobility compared to the nation as a whole: Louisiana, Oklahoma, and South Carolina have worse economic mobility than the national average on all three measures investigated; Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas have worse mobility than the national average on two measures.

Several factors propel economic mobility, said Nikolai Roussanov, professor of finance at the Wharton School of Business.

“For the bulk of the population, education is the main driver of upward mobility; accessibility to education and educational opportunities,” he said. “But, it’s also determined on how you apply the education, what sort of careers people go into.”

Beyond education, he added, entrepreneurship has the potential to enrich individuals. “The ability and willingness of people to start their own businesses and take risks is a big driver of wealth mobility,” he said.

And just because you don’t live in a region with better overall economic mobility doesn’t mean you won’t succeed, he said. “Even in areas where there is limited access to education there could be people taking big risks, and they can be successful and move up,” he said.

The Pew numbers tell an interesting story on where the better job opportunities may be, and it seems employers also see the potential.

Another study on mobility, this one from national moving company Atlas Van Lines, found that the Northeast is the top transfer location for companies relocating employees.

Atlas reported earlier this month that: “The Northeast is now the top destination of transfers (42 percent) followed by 2011’s top destination, the Midwest (37 percent) and the South (31 percent). The West remains fourth in relocation numbers (26 percent).”

If your company isn’t willing to move you, or you don’t have a job yet, it might be a smart idea to consider relocating yourself to a state offering more potential when it comes to upward economic mobility.

The Pew study also found those individuals who moved out of the state where they were born had “better mobility outcomes on average.”

To find out how your state fared in the study go check out Pew’s interactive map.

The financial shocks that began in 2007 prompted a lot of Americans to change their free-spending ways, especially when it came to taking on debt.

Several years on, some Americans may be reversing course, either by choice or necessity.

The Federal Reserve said Monday that Americans sharply increased their borrowing for big-ticket items like cars and education expenses in March and whipped out their credit cards more often.

Experts say the surprising increase of more than $21 billion in consumer borrowing may be a sign that Americans are feeling more comfortable taking on debt again. Or it could be that many are running out of other options.

With the economy still relatively weak, many say it’s doubtful that Americans have forgotten the harsh impact of the recession, financial crisis and credit crunch.

“I would hope that we as consumers have learned our lesson from the economic downturn that hey, we’ve got to watch our spending and spend what we can afford,” said Bill Hardekopf, CEO of lowcards.com, a credit card comparison website. “I would think a great number of people did learn that.”

But even with those lessons in mind, some Americans may feel they have to borrow money.

Paul Edelstein, director of financial economics with IHS Global Insight, said consumers may be taking out car loans because, after years of scrimping and putting off major expenses, they have little choice.

“People are in a position where they have to buy new cars,” Edelstein said.

Are you at risk of losing unemployment benefits?

Americans also may be rushing to take on student loan debt because they’re worried about a potential increase in the borrowing rate, he said. The interest rate on certain student loans could increase to 6.8 percent in July, from 3.4 percent currently, if Congress doesn’t take action.

It’s also possible that students are taking on new student loans faster than the old ones are being paid off thanks to the weak job market, said Alex Matjanec, co-founder of MyBankTracker.com, which provides information about banks, loans and credit cards.

Revolving debt – which is largely composed of credit card debt – accounted for about $5 billion of the increase in March. Still, total credit card debt is much lower than five years ago, before the recession, housing crisis and credit crunch changed people’s habits significantly.

Hardekopf said part of the reason for the March increase could be an aggressive push by banks to get people with good credit to use their cards more. He said banks have been pushing better incentives and rewards, although interest rates have not changed much.

Hardekopf also has seen an increase in credit card offers to higher-risk borrowers with lower credit scores. After years of tight credit they may be getting tempted by the more aggressive offers, he said.

Edelstein said he doubts people will go back to the free-spending, pre-recession days.

One big reason: Housing wealth, or a lack thereof. Before the housing bubble burst many Americans enjoyed the security of having a lot of equity in their homes. These days, with so many homes underwater, people are more likely to have to rely on their paycheck.

“You don’t have that cushion,” he said.

Gallup

Americans now expect to work longer

If the date you expect to retire seems to be getting further away rather than closer at hand, join the club.

The average age at which Americans expect to retire has been steadily creeping up since the mid-1990s, and has now reached 67 years old, according to a new Gallup poll.

That’s up significantly from 1996, when people expected to retire at age 60.

The results are consistent with other recent research into the topic, and show that Americans’ retirement plans have been dealt a significant blow thanks to the recession, financial crisis, high unemployment and housing bust.

Still, younger workers are more optimistic than their older peers.

Gallup’s annual Economy and Personal Finance survey, which was conducted in mid-April, found that people who are currently under age 40 expect to retire at age 65. Those who are 40 and over, and not yet retired, expect to retire at 68.

As with many things, the expectation is outpacing the reality. Among retirees, Gallup found that the average age of retirement has held steady at around 60 since 2004, although that’s up from 57 in the early 1990s.

Still, the average retirement age is expected to increase in the coming years. A major culprit appears to be money. The same poll found that more than half of the people who aren’t yet retired don’t think they’ll have enough money to live comfortably in retirement.

Even with a later retirement date you should still be able to enjoy some golden years. The average life expectancy in the United States is 78 years.

Related: More older couples are shacking up, skipping marriage

Thursday is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work day, although perhaps you didn't notice.

The annual event, started 20 years ago as a way to expose girls and young women to workplace and career opportunities, has attracted less attention in recent years.

Perhaps it’s another thing to blame on The Great Recession and slow economic recovery. The high joblessness that has plagued the  economy for five years has left many parents without work.

It’s also left those who are lucky enough to have a job nervous about holding onto it. That may mean it's not a great time for your child to say something embarrassing to your boss, spill soda on the keyboard or keep you from getting a day’s worth of work done.

There’s also the matter of how work has changed. Even two years ago, The New York Times noted that many kids already see their parents working a lot, because so many people now take their work home.

There have also been other criticisms of the event. Julie Drizin, director of the Journalism Center on Children and Families, wrote this week that she wouldn’t be participating after realizing that people who work long hours in low-wage jobs probably aren’t able to, either.

“I’ve come to believe that Take Your Daughters And Sons to Work Day is largely a feel-good exercise for the privileged,” she wrote.

Of course, many will participate. Carolyn McKecuen, president of the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day Foundation, said that while some organizations have stopped participating, other companies have joined.

She doesn’t think there has been a big drop in participation, although she conceded the group has not done an exact accounting.

That’s partly because the organization, an offshoot of the Ms. Foundation, has itself been hit hard by the recession. It now operates on about a quarter of its former budget because of a drop in big donors.

McKecuen said some have used the day to speak frankly about the current economy. She said she has heard of unemployed parents getting together with their children to discuss how to write a resume and look for a job.

Times have changed since the event began 20 years ago solely for girls, later expanding to include boys.

McKecuen, who has two boys, thinks including both genders has been valuable.

“Guys need to know if they want to be a nurse they can be a nurse. They don’t have to fly a plane,” she said.

“The reason we started this has changed very little over the years,” she said. “It was designed to expose youth to what (their parents) do in their lives during the workday, and the demands and the possibilities in the workplace.”

TODAY.com/SELF

Most people talk to their partners before making major purchases.

When it comes to spending money, some couples tell each other when they buy a bag of chips. Others don’t think to consult their spouse or partner until they’re eyeing a designer handbag.

As part of our online survey on financial infidelity, TODAY.com and SELF.com asked readers how much money they’d spend using a joint bank account or credit card before asking their spouse or partner.

For most readers, the bar is somewhere between the bag of chips and the handbag.

Of the nearly 22,000 people who answered the question, about 36 percent said they would feel comfortable spending $50 to $99 before consulting their spouse or partner. Another 22 percent said the bar is between $100 and $499.

About 28 percent of readers said they check in with their spouse about every single purchase, no matter how small. Only about 6 percent said they never tell their spouse how much they spend on anything.

The results were similar for men and women.

Experts say the threshold that couples set for spending money has a lot to do with how much money they are making. Still, it’s a good sign when a couple has a general idea of when to check in with one another.

“If you have a couple that’s fairly healthy about money, they each … tend to know when this is the kind of thing I shouldn’t do without my spouse knowing,” said Scott Stanley, a research professor at the University of Denver and co-author of the book “Fighting For Your Marriage.”

But Stanley said that kind of communication can go too far.

“I think it’s a bad idea for one person to feel like they have to account for every little impulse purchase,” he said.

Instead, he thinks couples should give each other the freedom to spend some amount of money on things they enjoy without asking permission – as long as it’s not for something like sex, drugs or gambling.

Pew Research Center

In a major reversal from the 1990s, young women are now more likely than young men to say a successful, high-paying career is one of the most important things in life, a new Pew Research Center study finds.

The report, released Thursday, found that 66 percent of women ages 18 to 34 said being successful and having a high-paying job are very important or one of the most important things in life. That compares to 59 percent of men that age who said the same thing.

Young women don’t seem to be willing to sacrifice other parts of their lives for their career, however. They were also more likely than men of the same age to say being a good parent and having a good marriage were among the most important things in life.

“They’re not backing away from wanting a successful marriage and wanting to be a successful parent,” said Kim Parker, associate director of Pew Social and Demographic Trends. “They’re saying they want all of those things.”

The most recent research is based on two surveys, conducted in 2010 and 2011, of working-age adults. Pew compared those results to a similar survey done in 1997.

The switch comes at a time when more women than men are getting college degrees, and women have come to make up close to half of the labor force.

Parker said that those changes have perhaps empowered women to want career success and financial rewards more than they used to. But she did not think the findings suggested that young men want those things less than they used to.

“I don’t think it’s saying anything negatively about men,” she said.

The percentage of women placing high importance on a successful, well-paying career has grown by 10 percentage points since 1997, Pew said. For men, it has increased by 1 percentage point.

The percentage of young women saying marriage is one of the most important things in life also has increased, from 28 percent in 1997 to 37 percent in 2010/2011. For men of that age, the importance of marriage has decreased during that time period, from 35 percent in 1997 to 29 percent in 2010/2011.

There was an increase among both young men and young women in the percentage who said that parenting is one of the most important things in life. Still, a higher percentage of women than men put high value on being a parent.

For both men and women, the importance of career and financial success lessens with age. The Pew study found that men and women ages 35 to 64 placed less value on workplace success than their younger peers.

Parker, the researcher, said it’s not clear whether the young women in the survey will remain as ambitious in their careers as they get older.

“It’ll be interesting to see if this plays out for them or if they end up running into glass ceilings or too many challenges in terms of balancing work and family,” she said.

There’s plenty of evidence that women start out virtually on par with men in terms of earnings, but then see their earnings fall behind as they get older.

In 2010, women in their late teens and early 20s earned about 95 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ analysis of median weekly earnings data. But women ages 55 to 64 earned just 75 cents for every dollar a man earned, according to that same data.

Overall, the wage gap between men’s and women’s weekly earnings has narrowed since record-keeping began in 1979. But it has always been generally true that the gender difference in pay was wider for older women than for younger women.

There are lots of theories as to why this is true, even for women and men who choose the same types of professions.

In 2009, University of Chicago professor Marianne Bertrand and her colleagues took a look at men and women who had earned MBAs from the university’s Booth School of Business between 1990 and 2006.

The researchers found that the male and female MBA grads started out earning about the same: $115,000 on average for women and $130,000 on average for men.

But the gap widened substantially as time went on. Nine years later, the women were earning $250,000 on average, while the men were taking home $400,000 on average.

They theorized that a major culprit was motherhood. The researchers found that women were taking more time off work, or not working at all, and also were more likely to be in jobs that paid less.

Slideshow: A look at Huguette Clark's jewelry collection

Christie's, New York

Freed from their bank vault by the executor of the estate, the jewels of copper heiress Huguette Clark were sold on April 17, including a rare pink diamond and these emerald, pearl and diamond ear pendants. See the photos for final sale prices.

Launch slideshow

NEW YORK — The jewelry collection of Huguette M. Clark, the mysterious heiress to a copper fortune, was sold at auction Tuesday afternoon at Christie's New York, fetching $18.3 million, far above the pre-sale estimate of $8.5 million to $12 million.

The jewels had been recovered from the bank vault of the reclusive heiress, who lived the last 20 years of her life in Manhattan hospitals and who had rarely been seen since the 1930s.

The last surviving child of U.S. Sen. William Andrews Clark (1839-1925), who made his fortune in mining, railroads and other ventures, Huguette Clark has been the subject of a series of reports on msnbc.com about her vacant properties and the management of her fortune. Born in Paris in June 1906, she died in May 2011 at age 104.

Hundreds of people filed through Christie's at Rockefeller Center to see her jewels over the weekend.

The highlight was a rare 9-carat purplish-pink diamond ring, with a pre-sale estimate of $6 million to $8 million.

"Four million dollars," started the elegant auctioneer, Rahul Kadakia.

National Women's Law Center

The difference between a man's paycheck and a woman's paycheck may have something to do with where people live.

A new analysis from the National Women’s Law Center finds that the pay gap between men and women varies widely among the  states.

Looking at full-time, year-round wages, the gap is smallest in Washington, D.C., where women earn 91 cents for every dollar men earn, and widest in Wyoming, where women earning just 64 cents for every dollar men earn.

Vermont and California also boasted small wage gaps between men and women, while Louisiana and Utah were among those with the largest wage gaps.

Demographic and economic factors help explain some of the disparity.

Many people who live in Washington work for the federal government, where wage gaps tend to be smaller than in private industry, said Fatima Goss Graves, vice president of education and employment for the National Women’s Law Center.

People who live in the nation's capital also may be younger, she added, and the wage gap is smaller among younger workers.

By contrast, in Wyoming there may be more jobs in traditionally male-dominated industries such as coal mining. The state is also largely rural and much more sparsely populated.

But Graves argues that such factors don’t account for the entire gap.

“There’s always a portion that cannot be explained away,” she said.

Economist Mike Montgomery with IHS Global Insight said demographic differences in various states could have a lot to do with the  wage gap. States with a homogeneous labor market – where men and women do similar jobs – could have a much narrower gap because opportunities are more equal.

The overall gap between men’s and women’s median earnings has improved as more women have entered the labor market, but a disparity remains.

That’s partly because men and women choose different career paths, but pay gaps persist even for people in the same jobs.

The median weekly income for female physicians and surgeons is just 71 percent of what men take home, for example. Even in traditionally female-dominated professions, such as nursing and teaching, women generally take home less than men each week, according to the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The National Women’s Law Center used the most recent 2010 data from the American Community Survey, which is conducted by the Census Bureau, to compile its analysis. Its findings are close to what the Census Bureau itself found when it did a similar analysis a couple of years ago.

Remember “sticker shock”?  After several years of heavily discounting their products in a desperate bid to keep assembly lines rolling, automakers are finding themselves back in the driver’s seat again – pushing prices to record levels.

And it’s “not a blip,” warns one senior analyst, who expects the trend to continue for several years. The good news for shoppers is that trade-ins are also yielding better prices – and while that new car, truck or crossover may command more money than ever before it’s also likely to include significantly more features and markedly better fuel economy than the vehicle it replaces.

The average new vehicle sold in the U.S. in March cost $30,748, according to data tracking service TrueCar.com.  That was up 6.9 percent from $28,771 a year earlier and marks an all-time record.

“It’s not a blip. It’s a trend we’ve been seeing for months,” said Jesse Toprak, TrueCar’s chief automotive analyst.  That’s despite the fact, he says, that “this might seem counterintuitive at a time you might expect to see people buying cheaper cars because fuel costs are rising so fast.”

But there have been a number of counterintuitive trends in the industry in recent months. One is the surge in overall car sales, which have been rebounding faster than the U.S. economy – despite the fuel price spike that, in decades past, might have been expected to result in a sharp downturn in demand.

There are a number of reasons why new car prices are spiking.  A key reason is “There’s a better equilibrium between supply and demand,” noted Toprak, “which means discounting isn’t needed as much.”

Dodge Dart Gets First Factory Wireless Charging System

While March saw vehicle sales surge to an annualized rate of around 14.5 million, that’s a long way from the decade-old industry peak of around 17.1 million.  In years past, makers would’ve been tacking on massive rebates and other incentives to boost sales. But in a significant move during the recent recession, many makers slashed production capacity, especially Detroit’s Big Three.

And so, with the remaining plants operating at, near and sometimes above their rated capacity, carmakers don’t need to be so generous. March incentives, according to TrueCar, slipped 1.8 percent, year-over-year, to an average $2,440 per vehicle.

There’s another reason why the run-up in pricing might seem unlikely. There’s been a significant upturn in the small car market with motorists trading big SUVs for compact crossovers and full-size sedans for subcompacts.  Nearly one in four vehicles sold in March fell into the small car category, up from barely one in six as recently as December, according to industry data.

Ford, Nissan Abandon Key Hybrid Programs

But don’t think of them as the classic “econoboxes” that proved so popular – briefly – in the wake of the twin oil shocks of the 1970s. Products like the 2012 Ford Focus and the latest-generation Hyundai Accent are far more stylish and well-equipped.

Consumers, meanwhile, “are upgrading the vehicles they’re buying,” no matter what class they fall into, noted Art Spinella, lead researcher at CNW Marketing.

In the decades that CNW has tracked automotive buying patterns, the typical vehicle will fall into the 50^th percentile — almost exactly halfway between the base price of a specific nameplate and the most heavily loaded version. In other words, if the entry model was $20,000 and a fully loaded version was $40,000, the typical buyer would spend $30,000.

But now, said Spinella, the average vehicle is falling into the 82^nd percentile.  Using the same example, the typical shopper now drives off in a vehicle costing $36,400.

U.S. Fuel Economy Tops 24 MPG for 1st Time

“People are trying to stuff all the bells and whistles they can in a car” in part, Spinella explained, because “they plan to keep it longer.”  Prior to the Great Recession, buyers told CNW they plan to hold onto a new vehicle, on average, about 42 months. That’s now up to 57 months.

The good news is that buyers aren’t necessarily spending a lot more out-of-pocket. That’s because used car prices have also surged over the last several years.  During the first quarter of 2012, the price of the average previously owned vehicle sold through a franchised new car dealer rose 12.5 percent, or about $1,400.  For the consumer, that meant a bigger trade-in allowance to apply to a new vehicle.

The upward trend in pricing is almost certain to continue, at least barring a sharp setback to the economy, industry analysts agree.

“The long-term trend is gradual price increases continuing for several more years as sales recover to 15 million and even 16 million,” forecast TrueCar’s Toprak.  “But the pace (of the increase) we’ve seen over the last several years isn’t sustainable.”

He anticipates prices will start to level off as they reach an average $31,000.

Let us know how you feel about sticker prices on our Facebook page.

Mark Lennihan / AP

People wait to talk with potential employers at a job fair in New York last December. Despite the high jobless rate, some say it's hard to find good workers.

The slowly improving job market may be exacerbating a problem you may not know this country had: Finding good workers to fill open positions.

A new survey from human resources firm Right Management finds that 27 percent of human resources executives often have trouble finding the right person for key positions. That’s up from 23 percent a year ago.

That may come as a shock to the millions of people who are unemployed, but the lack of qualified candidates is something executives were even complaining about during the depths of the recession.

The Right Management survey of 631 human resources officials and senior executives found that another 61 percent of respondents occasionally have trouble finding the right candidate for the job, about the same as last year. Just 13 percent said they seldom if ever have that trouble, a decrease from last year. The survey was conducted late last year.

Right Management officials said the findings could be a sign that the job market is improving. The economy has been adding jobs, but employment growth has been painfully slow. The unemployment rate stood at 8.2 percent in March, with 12.7 million people actively looking for a job.

Experts say there is legitimate shortage of workers in some fields, such as highly specialized manufacturing jobs.

 But some also say that employers grew spoiled during the recession, and either aren’t looking hard enough or aren’t willing to do things like pay moving expenses or provide some training for a new employee.

One problem is that workers who were laid off from a job in a declining industry may need to retrain for a job in a growing industry. That usually requires some money. The New York Times reported Monday that those jobseekers may face tougher times ahead, since federal funds to retrain the jobless are drying up.

Mike Segar / REUTERS

Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg is open and resolute about leaving work at a reasonable hour to spend time with her family.

If you’re leaving the office at 5 p.m. to spend time with your family and feeling guilty about it, don’t worry -- you’re in very good company.

Facebook’s COO Sheryl Sandberg tells Makers.com, a website that profiles successful American women, that she is open and resolute about leaving work at a reasonable hour to spend time with her family, although she admits she used to worry about what others thought of her departure time.

“I walk out of this office every day at 5:30, so I’m home for dinner with my kids at 6,” she told Makers.com, adding that she’s only been brave enough to talk about it publicly over the last few years.

Sandberg said she used to want to show her coworkers she was working just as hard as them, by getting up early and making sure they saw her e-mails at 5:30 a.m. or late at night.

“I’m more confident where I am [now], and so I’m able to say ‘Hey, I am leaving work at 5:30,’” she said. “I hope that means other women, and men, importantly, feel comfortable going home to see their kids.”

Sandberg left Google to join Facebook as its chief operating officer in 2008. She has also served as an economist for the World Bank and as chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury Department.

She has a bit of work on her plate now, too, as she helps shepherd Facebook to an expected initial public offering in the next two months that could value the young company at more than $100 billion.

You can watch the full video here.

Seth Perlman / AP

A San Francisco judge has dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit that sought to stop McDonald's Corp. from using toys to market its meals to children in California.

Children in California will still be able to get toys with their Happy Meals.

A San Francisco judge has dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit that sought to stop McDonald's Corp. from using toys to market its meals to children in the Golden State. The suit had been filed in late 2010 by Monet Parham, a California mother of two, and The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

The suit had claimed that the world's biggest hamburger chain was violating consumer protection laws and exploiting children's vulnerability by using toys to lure them to eat nutritionally unbalanced meals that can lead to obesity. The lawsuit did not seek damages.

McDonald's spokeswoman Danya Proud said that the lawsuit was without merit and detracted from "the important issue of children's health and nutrition."

"We are proud of our Happy Meals and will vigorously defend our brand, our reputation and our food," Proud said in the statement. "We stand on our 30-year track record of providing a fun experience for kids and families at McDonald's."

The Center for Science in the Public Interest said in a statement that it will discuss with Parham whether to appeal the case. The group called the use of toys to market food a "predatory practice that undermines parents, causes rifts in families and harms kids' health."

The suit, filed in the county of San Francisco, was dismissed by Judge Richard Kramer on Wednesday.