All is not dismal on the U.S. employment front. In addition to upward trending employment statistics, TechNet, the bipartisan policy and political network that promotes the growth of the innovation economy, published a new study Tuesday showing that mobile app development is creating jobs at a dramatic pace.

According to the report, there are now roughly 466,000 jobs in the so-called “App Economy” in the United States. That’s a dramatic improvement over 2007, when that number was… well, zero.

TechNet also found that these App Economy jobs are spread throughout the nation. The top metro area for App Economy jobs is New York City and its surrounding suburban counties, although together San Francisco and San Jose together substantially exceed New York.

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RIM may be struggling to have its BlackBerry smartphone keep pace with other industry leading devices in the mobile space today, but the company says at least 13% of its BlackBerry App World developers certainly aren’t struggling financially.

According to RIM vice president of developer relations Alec Saunders, the BlackBerry App World storefront is more profitable for devs that the competing Android Market owned and operated by rival Google.

Saunders revealed this week at the BlackBerry DevCon Europe conference that BlackBerry App World sees more than 6 million app downloads every 24 hours. Saunders alleges that App World now produces 43 percent more daily downloads per mobile app than Apple’s App Store.

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On Friday, the folks behind social network app PlayUp announced their partnership with St. Louis Rams Running Back Steven Jackson and Buffalo Bills wide receiver Stevie Johnson to give fans “a unique real-time interactive mobile experience around Super Bowl XLVI.”

“I am extremely excited to be able to hang out and bond with my fans in the PlayUp app in real-time during the premier event on the sports calendar,” said Johnson. “I love being able to use social media to relate with my fans in ways never before possible, and the PlayUp app is great in that it lets me connect with them over our shared passion – football. It should be a remarkable game. Hopefully next year football fans will be using PlayUp to praise my team while we’re on our way to a Super Bowl victory!”

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Shopify, a venerable name in digital commerce, announced Wednesday that it has acquired mobile app development firm Select Start Studios (S3).

According to Shopify, the reason for the acquisition is to help the company carry out an aggressive mobile growth strategy.

The acquisition marks Shopify’s first major investment since raising $15 million in Series B funding last October.

Having helped to build some of today’s biggest online stores, Shopify can presently boast of 20,000 active online stores in 80 different countries.

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There’s no shortage of amenities we all prefer to have at our disposal on Super Bowl Sunday. But with each passing year, smartphones and football-themed apps are joining the list of staples we’ve come to know and love on game day.

Just in time for the Super Bowl this year, Verizon Wireless is giving customers a simple approach to get some of its most popular apps, including NFL Mobile Premium, Verizon Video, VZ Navigator, Visual Voicemail, Usage Controls and a Ringback Tones subscription.

Best of all, says the carrier, they come in one bundle for one monthly price.

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A new report published Friday from Distimo provides an overview of the effects when an application is featured in the Apple App Store for iPhone, Apple App Store for iPad and Google Android Market.

One of the key findings of the report shows that the average revenue rose by 41% in the Apple App Store for iPhone when looking at those applications that were already among the 100 highest grossing applications in any category, on the first day of the sale.

Moreover, Distimo’s report finds, the revenue during the whole sale increased by 22%. In the Apple App Store for iPad those figures were +52% and +19%, respectively. In the Google Android Market on the first day the revenue increased by 7%, and during the whole sale increased by 29%.

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On Thursday, the mobile advertising gurus at Millennial Media raised the curtain and rolled out the red carpet for a new solution for advertisers to drive usage and engagement within their branded apps.

The new “App Engagement Program,” the company says, will allow brands to re-engage users who have previously downloaded their app, and use mobile display ads to drive them back to specific destinations inside the app.

Advertisers who use the new solution will also gain “unique conversion metrics, and the ability to re-target consumers with relevant messaging.”

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