A Mixed U.S. Unemployment Report, With a Hint of Promising News.

It's another report out on the state of unemployment in the United States. And it shows that the recession may indeed be easing somewhere down the road. Employers cut 539,000 jobs in the month of April...but the Labor Department points out that the number is the lowest in six months. Still, the overall unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent, which is the highest it's been since late 1983, proof that businesses who are either doing okay or laying off their workers are wary about bringing in any new employees. The Labor Department tally released Friday was below the 620,000 job cuts that economists were expecting, and was boosted by a burst of federal government hiring of temporary workers to prepare for the 2010 Census. The new report is proof of the toll the longest recession since World War II has taken on America's workers and companies. But analysts say the slowdown in layoffs might bolster expectations that the worst of the downturn's hefty job losses are past. Here's President Barack Obama's response to the report.

"Although we have a long way to go before we can put this recession behind us, the gears of our economic engine do seem to be slowly turning once again,"

On Wall Street, the employment news sent stocks up. And Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody'sEconomy.com says

"There are glimmers of hope. We are moving in the right direction in terms of layoffs. They are measurably less bad than what we've been through,"

If laid-off workers who have given up looking for new jobs or have settled for part-time work had been included, the unemployment rate would have been 15.8 percent in April, the highest on records dating back to 1994. The total number of unemployed now stands at 13.7 million, up from 13.2 million in March. Since the recession began in December 2007, the economy has lost a net total of 5.7 million jobs. As the recession eats into sales and profits, companies have turned to layoffs and other cost-cutting measures to survive the storm. Those including holding down workers' hours, and freezing or cutting pay. Construction companies axed 110,000 jobs, down from 135,000 in March. Factories got rid of 149,000 jobs, down form 167,000 the month before. Retailers cut payrolls by nearly 47,000, less than the nearly 64,000 cut in March. And job losses in financial activities dropped by 40,000, down from 43,000 in the previous month. Looking ahead, economists expect monthly job losses for most of this year. However, they hope the reductions won't be as deep. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, wouldn't speculate on the future pace of layoffs, but warned that some of the jobs lost "may not come back." She urged job-seekers to get the training and education needed to be contenders for work in growing industries, such as health care, which added nearly 17,000 jobs in April. Obama is asking states and colleges to help jobless people pursue education and training without losing their unemployment benefits, which typically happens when they enroll in school. States generally require people who collect unemployment to be actively looking for work, which can make it difficult to sign up for school or job training. Under Obama's plan, going to school will satisfy the requirement that they are seeking new employment. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke earlier this week gave his most optimistic prediction yet about the end of the recession, saying he expects the economy to start growing again this year — although the comeback could be weak and more jobs will disappear even after a recovery takes hold. But most labor experts think companies will have little appetite to ramp up hiring until they feel the economy is truly out of the woods and a recovery is firmly rooted. Against that backdrop, many economists predict the unemployment rate will hit 10 percent by the end of this year. Bernanke stopped short of that figure, saying it will be somewhere in the 9 percent range. Regardless, both private economists and Bernanke agree the unemployment rate will keep climbing into next year. The Fed says unemployment will remain elevated into 2011. Economists say the job market may not get back to normal — meaning a 5 percent unemployment rate — until 2013. And the job cuts have continued this week. Steelmaker Severstal International said it's idling plants in Wheeling, W.Va., and Warren, Ohio, resulting in 3,100 layoffs due to the continuing deterioration of the steel industry. Microsoft Corp. said it was starting thousands of the 5,000 job cuts it announced in earlier this year and left the door open to even more layoffs. Still, glimmers of hope have emerged that the recession may be losing its grip on the country. The Labor Department on Thursday said the number of newly laid-off workers filing applications for jobless benefits plunged to the lowest level in 14 weeks, a possible sign that the wave of layoffs has peaked. Still, the number of unemployed workers drawing benefits climbed to a new record — 6.35 million. However, Friday's employment report shows that the wages of people still in the workforce barely budged in April, meaning even employed consumers will probably stay somewhat cautious in the months ahead about spending money. Average hourly earnings nudged up to $18.51 in April, a 0.1 percent rise from the previous month.