As bad as it was, the May jobs report that jobs cuts were nearly halved from recent months to 345,000 is more confirmation that the freefall in the economy ended in the spring. Contractors laid off 59,000 workers, the smallest monthly job cut since last September. Manufacturers cut 156,000 jobs, reducing production to absorb surplus inventory. Other employers were catching up with staff adjustments to reduced sales levels. Construction will largely be in a staff adjustment mode, rather than panic mode, in a month or two and manufacturing a month or so later. So overall monthly job losses will progressive decline to zero at the end of the year.

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