The Labor Department released unemployment numbers for the month of May on Friday, revealing some good news / bad news for the U.S. economy. 345,000 Americans lost their jobs in May — far fewer than experts had predicted. In January, 741,000 Americans were laid off — more than double May’s numbers. The dramatic slowdown in the rate of job loss is seen as a positive sign that the recession could be coming to an end. On the other hand, with 345,000 more people now looking for a job, plus most of those laid off early in the year still job searching, the unemployment rate cont...

The Labor Department released its unemployment numbers for the month of April today and there is a bit of good news. The pace of layoffs slowed down last month to 539,000 jobs cut. More than half a million jobs probably sounds like bad news, not good (and, for those 539,000 people, it no doubt is). But this is the lowest layoff figure we’ve had in six months. Economists had been predicting that 620,000 jobs would be cut, which makes these numbers sound even more hopeful. The buoying was due in large part to the federal government hiring numerous temporary 2010 Census workers. Unfortun...

Early figures were released today indicating that private sector job loss rose in March to 742,000. Official tallies from the U.S. government will be released at the end of the week (and we’ll be sure to report on them), but the numbers coming out today from the payroll firm ADP indicate that the recession is far from over. Analysts had been predicting that layoffs would slow this month to around 633,000. In February, job losses stood at 706,000, so March’s numbers are a clear climb. I’m geeky enough to whip out the calculator and try to compare apples to apples. In the 28-da...